Saving Daylight

Fall is my favorite time of the year.  I take to the walking path with a renewed energy after the weariness imposed by the summer’s heat.  A trail of tiny yellow and orange leaves lines the path offering a brand of magical candy corn that adds sweetness to every step. The trees rustle their leaves in unison providing me with my own Rocky theme song.  Everyone I pass seems friendlier.  

The trade-off to the splendor of fall is early sunsets and shorter days.  Daylight saving time ends at 2 AM on Sunday, November 3rd.  For one night, we will “fall back,” and gain an extra hour of sleep. I recall a time in my life when that extra hour of darkness and sleep felt delicious.  However, I am now at an age where my own days are growing shorter in number.  I wonder if sleeping them away in darkness is the best use of what is left.

Throughout my working life there were many people interested my retirement savings.  I was bombarded with information about IRAs, 401(k)s, and qualified retirement accounts.  There were constant reminders to save along with the contradictory warnings that no matter how much I saved, it might not be enough to get me through a long retirement.  But no one spoke to me about my daylight savings.  No one asked me if I was putting back enough to get me through any future darkness. 

Youth is all about the present.  There is still so much future, so much hope.  There will be time, we think.  In our young minds, the future is always bright, and sometimes money and daylight get away from us.  Too soon, it is the future, and the vault is low on funds. Busy and optimistic with early dreams of retirement, I never considered that my daylight situation could become precarious.  I am wishing I had been a better daylight saver for when the sun goes down, the lights are dim and it is hard to see clearly or at all.

The world feels unstable right now.  We are ill at ease in our own country.  There is so much political turbulence and distrust that it no longer even feels like home.  We are blinded by the eerie darkness of so much uncertainty and deliberate misinformation.  We are counting down the days to the election, trying to prepare ourselves for an aftermath we cannot quite imagine.

Like many, I am fearful of what is to come not just for me but for all of us.  I don’t know if I have enough daylight saved.  If my daylight savings account runs low, I will have to rely on my social security alone.  I will have to hope that good neighbors are watching, the bus driver stops, and the kids call home.  And so I ask this of you:  be someone’s social security.  Share the light you have saved.  Make hospitality common again. Let us dazzle the darkness with the light that comes from within.