June 21- Solstice, eh?

There's something inherently saddening about the summer solstice, in my opinion (and maybe it's just that I'm looking at this through the eyes of an optimist). It mostly stems from the idea that after today, the days get shorter. Now, I understand that we can't really control the orbit of the Earth or the amount of sunlight we get on any given day (unless you're Mr. Burns, perhaps), so we have no way of controlling the fact that yes, the days will in fact be getting shorter just as summer weather seems to be here to stay. So what do we do? Changing a calendar won't work (ask the Hebrews, whose calendar can't quite crack the popularity of the Gregorian style).

Sorry, Rabbi Krustofsky, it's not 5769

Let's think this through for a minute... we want the long days to coincide fully with the warmth and optimal season known as summer, where leisure at least APPEARS to be the dominant theme. This is point number one.

Number two: Daylight time will invariably begin to decline after June 21st.

I propose that we embrace the standard two-semester college idea of letting summer start a month earlier. Doing so will give people an opportunity to dive into summer activities a month earlier and- get this- those activities can last longer because the days are still getting longer! This may require us to bump back the daylight savings date, which I think would be fine...now, since August and September are usually beautiful, we COULD.... keep the summer break for students at its current length. Once school starts, move to longer school days in order to make up for the longer break....or, make for shorter days and shorter overall summer breaks.

For those of you with a job that requires your presence all 12 months of the year, I am sorry. I really am. Suckers.