"… many Catholics remain a little leery of the process, worried that it is destined to lead to a closed-shop final phase in Rome where some will try to foist a revisionist agenda on the global Church …"
I’ve always loved you and JD and valued your comments and opinions. Until your rant on Daylight Savings Time today. Obviously a pet peeve of yours. I’m gonna have to disagree – if you can rant, so can I.
Some random thoughts:
* In the warm(er) summer months, do you not relish the extra daylight to partake in outdoor evening activities? Activities that are not even possible or desirable in the cold winter months, even if it were light enough to partake in them.
* This process is not up for a world-wide vote: who cares what the rest of the world does regarding this (or indeed many, many other things)?
* DST may originally had something to do with using available daylight to get more work done, but I think it has evolved into a matter of having more and better leisure time.
* We maybe can’t control the passage of time, but we can control how best to utilize the amount of daylight we have, and if that can be done by changing the clocks twice a year, then hooray for us. And to call the desire to do that narcissistic, well that’s playing fast and loose with the meaning of the word.
In the end, aren’t we just doing what you jokingly suggested: “change the clocks to suit our fancy”?
Thanks for the deep track on the Vatican trial, this is honestly great stuff and why more people should subscribe.
On another note, I know you guys usually give short shrift to the postliberals (a portemanteau term much abused though it is), but I note an uncanny similarity of argument with a piece from the excellent folks over at New Polity regarding daylight saving time: https://newpolity.com/blog/daylight-saving-time
Thank you once again for a well written, thought-out, and informative update/newsletter. I really enjoyed the detail (though not 40 pages worth) analysis of the ongoing court procedures at the Vatican, and I also must heartily agree with you, Ed, on the whole 'Daily-Light Saving' time nonsense. It is an entirely human construct, and one that only came into being in the last 100+ years (circa WWI), where most of human history did not rely on trying to fool our bodies and minds with the non-sense of "Spring Forward, Fall Back". There are ongoing scientific studies that prove how detrimental this mindless fabrication really is. Keep on preaching the truth Ed!
Ed, your whole premise is based on a bad foundation. The whole concept of time is a creation of man, and therefore we can do whatever we wish with it. Noon is a concept that occurs when the sun is at its highest. This occurs at a different moment depending on where you are. If you are 100 yards from me, then your noon is different from mine. Man has divided the world into time zones to allow us to make sense of events. Man arbitrarily set up the 24hour clock and said we would live by it. I have lived right on the border between time zones. If I worked 10 miles east of where I lived, I had to get up an hour earlier (by the clock) than my counterpart who lived to the east. If I wanted to eat at restaurant near work, I ate early (5 pm) just to satisfy the restaurant's hours. So while you can argue for or against DST, don't use the argument that it is the hubris of man to try to control time. Time Zones are a creation of man, and therefore we can do whatever we want with them.
Well, how things work in your parish don’t work that way in mine, sorry to say. Serving in a retirement area, the senior folks do talk and visit a lot but their all in the same situations. Please remember there are safe environment protocols that like it or not we must follow.
"… many Catholics remain a little leery of the process, worried that it is destined to lead to a closed-shop final phase in Rome where some will try to foist a revisionist agenda on the global Church …"
Me: Ya think?
Ed.
I’ve always loved you and JD and valued your comments and opinions. Until your rant on Daylight Savings Time today. Obviously a pet peeve of yours. I’m gonna have to disagree – if you can rant, so can I.
Some random thoughts:
* In the warm(er) summer months, do you not relish the extra daylight to partake in outdoor evening activities? Activities that are not even possible or desirable in the cold winter months, even if it were light enough to partake in them.
* This process is not up for a world-wide vote: who cares what the rest of the world does regarding this (or indeed many, many other things)?
* DST may originally had something to do with using available daylight to get more work done, but I think it has evolved into a matter of having more and better leisure time.
* We maybe can’t control the passage of time, but we can control how best to utilize the amount of daylight we have, and if that can be done by changing the clocks twice a year, then hooray for us. And to call the desire to do that narcissistic, well that’s playing fast and loose with the meaning of the word.
In the end, aren’t we just doing what you jokingly suggested: “change the clocks to suit our fancy”?
Thanks for listening from a loyal subscriber,
Bruce Tuffli
Thanks for the deep track on the Vatican trial, this is honestly great stuff and why more people should subscribe.
On another note, I know you guys usually give short shrift to the postliberals (a portemanteau term much abused though it is), but I note an uncanny similarity of argument with a piece from the excellent folks over at New Polity regarding daylight saving time: https://newpolity.com/blog/daylight-saving-time
Thank you once again for a well written, thought-out, and informative update/newsletter. I really enjoyed the detail (though not 40 pages worth) analysis of the ongoing court procedures at the Vatican, and I also must heartily agree with you, Ed, on the whole 'Daily-Light Saving' time nonsense. It is an entirely human construct, and one that only came into being in the last 100+ years (circa WWI), where most of human history did not rely on trying to fool our bodies and minds with the non-sense of "Spring Forward, Fall Back". There are ongoing scientific studies that prove how detrimental this mindless fabrication really is. Keep on preaching the truth Ed!
Ed, your whole premise is based on a bad foundation. The whole concept of time is a creation of man, and therefore we can do whatever we wish with it. Noon is a concept that occurs when the sun is at its highest. This occurs at a different moment depending on where you are. If you are 100 yards from me, then your noon is different from mine. Man has divided the world into time zones to allow us to make sense of events. Man arbitrarily set up the 24hour clock and said we would live by it. I have lived right on the border between time zones. If I worked 10 miles east of where I lived, I had to get up an hour earlier (by the clock) than my counterpart who lived to the east. If I wanted to eat at restaurant near work, I ate early (5 pm) just to satisfy the restaurant's hours. So while you can argue for or against DST, don't use the argument that it is the hubris of man to try to control time. Time Zones are a creation of man, and therefore we can do whatever we want with them.
Well, how things work in your parish don’t work that way in mine, sorry to say. Serving in a retirement area, the senior folks do talk and visit a lot but their all in the same situations. Please remember there are safe environment protocols that like it or not we must follow.
Pray for a solution in my parish please.