This content was created by Kim Gaskill. This content was uploaded by Kim Gaskill. This is a YouTube video titled "004 Daylight Savings Time" (Daily Spark) uploaded April 29, 2019 featuring Kim Gaskill in a solo monologue. In this short vlog-style episode she describes a personal anecdote about time-zone confusion while traveling (coming from Phoenix to Tucumcari/Panhandle of Texas), explains the history and purpose of daylight savings time, and reflects on whether practices we continue by habit still make sense in modern life. The piece is informal, reflective, and invites viewers to join her next Daily Spark.
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It is a beautiful day here in Tucumcari, New Mexico. I'm Kim Gaskill, and this is the Daily Spark. It is 47 degrees this morning, a little bit chilly, but it's early still, and that's a good thing. I wanted to rest just for a couple of hours, get on my way so I could make it to the Panhandle of Texas and watch the sunrise. But I had a moment of panic when I woke up from my rest and the clock on my car said 3:45, which was cool. But when I picked up my phone and it said 4:45, I thought I wasn't going to make it because I lost an hour. I'm like, oh no, I hit a time change. I wasn't planning on that. I totally forgot, and now I'm gonna miss it. I calmed down, realized I had enough time. But it was one of those things that is, you know, especially being from— coming from Phoenix, that is the most confusing place to be when it comes to time zones and time changes. And I'm constantly missing things when I'm out there because Phoenix doesn't observe daylight savings time. So depending on the time of year, it could be 2 hours difference or 3 hours difference. And it's just, it's really confusing. So when I was thinking about that, I thought, oh yeah, tomorrow is daylight savings time fallback, where we turn our clocks back an hour and go back to real time and get off of daylight savings time. Which daylight savings time, it was just to primarily help us conserve energy. Try to use the best part of the day, the longest part of the day, during the summer hours from April to November. And it— that changed over the years too. It used to be October, then they pushed it back to November. And in— during World War II, I think it was for 3 years we were on daylight savings time, like all year. They never changed it back. So it's, it's kind of had a weird ride, and the whole designation of the time zones and all that, it's pretty interesting history if you want to research it. But I got to thinking, we do this daylight savings time, and, and now California and Florida, I think, are trying to pass laws like Arizona where they don't have to observe it. It's, it's becoming unnecessary in a lot of people's minds. It's like the intention that they had to, to start it was good, and at that time it made sense. But now that it doesn't really matter as much, we can do business any time of the day in any part of the country online. Doesn't matter if it's daylight or not. It's not like growing up on a farm where you got up at sunrise, went out and worked all day, and when the sun set, that's when you came home. Now we can do business any time of the day. We're not limited by sunlight. So does it matter anymore? Is it one of those things that we continue to do just because we've always done it and we're not evaluating whether it's effective anymore? Do you do things like that in your business or in your personal life that you just go through the motions because you've always done it you continue to do it when in reality you don't need to do it anymore. And maybe sometimes you shouldn't do it anymore. Think about that and think about joining me tomorrow for another Daily Spark.
