I’ve had to pay attention to time zone for most of my career. Coordinating meetings that include people from different time zones, I have to be careful to make sure that my systems are set to the right time. I also need to make sure that all the people are available at the time selected.

I have to remember that New York is earlier, and China and Japan are tomorrow.

There is a way to adjust the time zone- UTC. I thought it meant Universal time clock, but it actually means Universal Coordinated Time. They scrambled the order of the letters to UTC because of a bureaucratic compromise to make sure that NO one was perfectly happy. But the important part is the C stands for coordinated.

Time is coordinated? The time–which everyone all over the world references–is decided by committee?

How is that a thing?

I discovered it was a thing from reading Why Time Flies: A mostly Scientific Investigation by Alan Burdick.

The present is even more ephemeral than I understood. Designated clocks from around the world report in to the committee, and that committee aggregates the report to arrive at what the precise time was two weeks earlier.

Some of the clocks that report in are statistical outliers. Yet they are included. Everybody has their say.

I thought time and tides wait for no man.

I was wrong. Time will linger, and make room for lollygaggers in actuality.

There is room for my irregularities, as it happens. I am gladdened at this information. Things are more malleable than I had feared.

Since this is true, what else is true? Where else in my life is there more room for me? What other liberties might I take?