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Richmond Shreve| Correspondent

Daylight saving time: When does it start?

Ready for more sun? Daylight saving time is right around the corner.

staff video, USA TODAY

Daylight Savings Time begins today. Its a secular observance of our northern transition from long nights to long days. As the days lengthen, we welcome the first hints of spring like the songs of birds, green shoots of crocuses and the swelling buds on cherry trees. Easter, Holi, Passover and other spiritual celebrations of grace and renewal are observed at this time of year. We enjoy light.

This years celebrations will be amplified by the expectation that the long winter of COVID-19 will soon be over. Effective vaccines are being manufactured faster than our health systems can administer them. Soon there will be enough for anyone and everyone to be protected, not just the highly vulnerable and essential personnel.

Not all see vaccination as a godsend. Dark and sinister imaginings and deep distrust haunt the minds of some,making them hesitant. Health professionals, epidemiologistsand others with firsthand knowledge of the facts are incredulous. They know that inaction is a decision with consequencesbad ones both personally and socially.

We cherish our right to believe what we choose in all things, be they spiritual or secular. We respect the right of others to perceive the world differently. Indeed, we often learn and grow through listening to the views of others. So how do we engage with friends whose deeply held beliefs we dont accept? How do we foster light over darkness?

Author Karen Tibbals says we should listen and ask good questions. She offers these questions concerning the vaccine issue:

Her concept is simple; these questions encourage deeper thinking about what one knows and how one knows it. Her newsletter and her book,Persuade, Dont Preach,give many more examples of good questions. They foster openness in both our friends and in us.

Our listening lets our friends speak their mind while examining how they know what they believe. In thinking about and responding to such queries, our information can be shared and examined without preaching. And by being open, we admit light where darkness and doubt dominated our conversation.

For me, as a Quaker, this is an essential personal spiritual practice and one I find extremely challenging. To hold an important question without hastening to answer or dismiss it, to be open to answers that are discordant or upsetting, and to listen for the still, small voice that enlightensthese practices require slowing down, asking good questions and above all being a committed and thoughtful listener.

This is particularly hard when the stakes are high. If large numbers of people refuse vaccination, science says that vaccine-resistant variants of the COVID-19 virus may get a foothold and spread.

Not to be vaccinatedhas consequences for all, not just the individual. Trusting in science, Id like to mandate vaccination. But vaccinating someone against their will runs counter to American values of personal freedoms.

As a practical matter, our only effective option is to persuade. We are powerless to compel others to believe anything at all. In fact, our friends must always persuade themselves by reflecting on how they know what they believe.

Isnt that exactly what we ourselves aspire to do to think for ourselves, to be autonomous?Mind the light.

Richmond Shreve is a member of the Newtown Friends Meeting and lives in Newtown. From a Faith Perspective is a weekly column written by members of local faith communities.

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From a Faith Perspective: Daylight Savings Time reminds us the long winter of COVID is almost over - Bucks County Courier Times