The Return to Standard Time

We returned early this morning to Standard Time, and when I awoke this morning the sun was already up and the sky was blue. But now it is five o’clock in the evening and the sky is steel blue and very soon it will turn black and night will occur. I feel a certain calm at the return of Standard Time, the marker of the regular, the standard that occurred first and that represents the order that is disrupted by the change to daylight savings. Perhaps I imagine that the return to Standard Time returns me to some natural rhythm and settles me back into the diurnal, but I know that this idea is a myth. Regardless, time is an artificial imposition, not unlike the padded shoulders on men’s sport coats that are supposed to enhance appearance but add nothing to the body itself, or like the corsets ladies wore to alter their body shapes by stuffing them into those latex prisons. 

There is a certain melancholy to the early darkness; for another six weeks the days will grow shorter and the nights longer and at all times the temperature will decrease steadily. I will take out my sweaters and my corduroys, put the gloves in the overcoat pockets, take the hats from the drawers and the wool scarves from their summer resting places. We will make sure that the windows are locked and sealed tightly, and that the doors are wind proofed. Nonetheless, we know the cold will follow us in anyways.

Outside my cabin door, the black cat all day sits but will not yet enter. It is alright: I’ve got all I can take care of now. Perhaps when the chill descends he will change his mind and grace my door.

It is a steady race now to Christmas: the catalogs have already started to arrive. Bah, humbug. And by then the days already grow longer and move steadily back to Daylight Savings Time. The Circle Game.