Few good things happen at 2 a.m. 

When the clock strikes 2 on Nov. 5, daylight savings time ends again, hastening Mother Nature’s bringing of the dark to afternoon. If that just seems wrong to you, you’re right.

The extra morning light it yields is a consolation prize, and depending on the life you lead, it’s more helpful then than at the end of the day. But most people I know get up hours later than I do and would rather have the hour of light after work to run errands and get in a family baseball or other game.

The days are getting shorter anyway, no matter which hours we assign to day and night time. Why hasten it for the majority with this longstanding, artificial means? How about something else in its place that would be more helpful, like making days 26 hours – Earth’s rotation be darned.

This could pose an interesting precedent. Why not have some days, artificially, be longer than others? Christmas and income tax filing day could be longer. And those could be offset with two days a year each person chooses to be shorter for them: What is your least favorite day of the year? I think many of us would pick anniversaries of a love one’s death.

Time cannot stop loss, and we can’t change time, although we try. We set the clocks ahead in the spring and back in the fall, the only control we have over Mother Nature is this. Maybe the answer is the simplest one. Make each day your own, to be a success, do the right thing, help a friend, help a stranger, get something done you’ve been putting off.

Together, those things make a better today and an easier, better tomorrow, no matter what time we tell the sun to set.