Just another 4-letter word

Let’s see, where are we? Rather, have we recovered after we wiggled through all of those cold temperature numbers which hit Eagle Observer country years ago and even those that hit us just a couple of months ago? And, how about forgetting what four-letter words can do and getting down to something that gets the entire country up and down, in an uproar, or rather all mixed up, sometimes for several days, a couple of times every year? I’d almost bet that quarter you’ve already figured out what this ‘cuff is going to be about, haven’t you?

Earlier this year, I read somewhere or heard that some of our governing representatives and senators (I don’t think it involved any from Arkansas) were planning to take action because the time (there’s a four-letter word: time) has come to quit this twice a year requirement which involves all of us to keep our clocks on the right time … Yep, it’s Daylight Savings Time. Something that has been tossed around for many years and which stirs the ayes and nays to grumble — one day in the spring when it begins and another in autumn when you gotta reverse that hand that goes around. The idea began in Europe, and the gentleman who helped form our Republic, Benjamin Franklin, brought it back after a trip there. It was used during World War I and II, and since then, it has been making its rounds throughout the nation.

Did you ever forget to make those changes only to find yourself late for an appointment or going to church? And did it mess up your sleeping and waking activity and on and on and on? And something else has evolved with the twice-time requirement. Those days are chosen for clockwork and have been used to remind us to check the smoke and carbon monoxide alarm batteries. It’s then the whole project really gets dangerous: Standing on a chair or a step stool, reaching up over your head to remove those devices, and then, after changing batteries, it gets worse; it’s standing on tiptoe to match those little holes in the clock’s back to the little screws in the wall.

If the governing minds introduce such a law, and if it happens, the sparks will begin to fly. The ayes have it, but the nays say it isn’t so, or it is not the best thing to do. Some thinkers could then suggest it is time or way past time that a balanced budget should be approved, and maybe we should forget about changing Daylight Savings Time and focus on that. That will be the time for the sparks to fly, not just in good old D.C. but throughout the nation, which already is divided too many ways.

I just wonder if they might reach an agreement, just spring forward a half hour, which remains until autumn, and then nothing happens. The half-hour yearly time could be tried for five or six years to see how or if it works out. There’s a quarter for that idea.

Don’t you guess the fourletter word time causes problems lots of times, so it’s time to change the subject? How about that wonderful day, Christmas, that is upon us again with the words about the real meaning of the date? Isn’t it honestly a day, a date, a time we realize what it really means to us today? Isn’t it really a date about the true meaning of love (a real four-letter word) and how the love that came that day is our responsibility as a people? Such a task has been given to us. When we fall short of such love, we fail. This is always the day, the time to recharge and reach out to continue what has been given to us. Only then can there really be joy throughout the land — and especially throughout our families!