Daylight savings time. How like Americans to delude themselves into thinking that by turning the clock ahead an hour they can have an extra hour of daylight! As if by human manipulation of the clock an ordinary day would have an extra hour - and that would, of course, since we willed it, be an extra hour of daylight.

What really happens is chaos with schedules all over the world, as if there isn't enough difficulty keeping track of time zone changes from country to country and state to state.

What would be so difficult in each industry to declare that the workday would start an hour earlier? Many companies twenty years ago encouraged employees to use flex time - a time they could set between core hours that would enable them to work when they were at their most productive. For me that was from six o'clock in the morning to three in the afternoon. For others that was ten o'clock until six in the afternoon or any eight hour schedule in between. I had half a day to enjoy the daylight.

Benjamin Franklin came up with the idea centuries ago. Factory owners loved the idea, increasing the daily work hours, not making more free daylight hours for the workers. Some times that great patriot wasn't thinking about a common worker. That is to his discredit!

Let's get real! Adjust our own time. The daylight itself is a self adjuster. The sun gives us energy if we attune ourselves to it. I discovered the phenomenon on June 21st, 1999, in Arctic Circle when the sun shone all 24 hours. We celebrated with a bonfire - I forget the significance. We sang and danced, infused with a delight for being alive. I was not the only one affected. People were up all night enjoying the sun, infused with energy, driven to retire to rest the body, but not nearly for the usual dulling eight hours.

I set my electronic clocks last night before I went to bed. My computer clock had enough smarts to set itself, that at least was one place where technology salvaged some of my dignity. I hope the world will come to its senses and bring back stability to the time tables.