Real Time

While we were at a local college to hear some fiddle music yesterday we came across this sundial.  It is situated front and center as you come to the front door of the main building on campus.  I paused to look at it.   I have seen sundials in the past.  Andy even told me that the upright piece that sheds the shadow on the numbers is called a gnomon.  We compared the time on the sundial and the time on our cell phone.  The cell showed 11:45...the sundial 10:45.  I know you can't see it, but the left edge of the sun's shadow in just a quarter increment before the line denoting 11.

I began to think about how we have adjusted the laws of the universe to our own convenience  here in this modern time.  Centuries ago when men came up with a way of marking years and seasons and days and hours, they depended on the sun and the moon and the position of stars in the sky.  The world they lived in made them aware of what was happening...or about to happen.  Harvest.  Winter.  Planting time.  Eat.  Sleep.  Work.  Play.  Simple yet effective.  The world got along very well with what to us, are crude measures of time.

I am not a farmer.  Never have been.  And I never will be.  But one thing I do know.  When the clocks are set ahead in the spring and back in the fall, it does not make any difference when you milk your cows or go out to plow your field or plant your crops.   Our universal life is still ruled by the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening.  The stars show us season and the moon marks the months.  

Living where I do I am much more in tune with what is happening outside.  When the sun streams in my east window, it is time to get up.  When the warm rays beat down over my head it is time to eat my mid day meal.  And when that blazing orb sets over the western horizon and paints the trees with crimson...it is time to put away the tools and make ready for the night.  And when I search the heavens for the marked constellations ,which I am slowly learning...I look forward to the month ahead and what it will bring.

Yes, there are certain advantages to living in "real time".