It’s happening, America: we’ve arrived at the absolute best day of the year – the day we spring ahead!

I know, you’re probably still rubbing your eyes, and wondering why this guy on TV is so happy about you losing an hour of sleep? Listen, you’ll get it back. Just spend one less hour tonight scrolling through Facebook in bed, and look, you’re all caught up!

The return to “Daylight Saving Time” (and by the way, there’s no “s” at the end), which is the official name for what happens today, is a day to celebrate, because it means we made it. We’re survivors, of those dark afternoons, those dark mornings, and those dark nights of the soul, thinking about how, well, dark it is outside.

We made it through the worst of it, which for people like me, with “self-diagnosed” Seasonal Affective Disorder, is actually a pretty big deal. Just the thought that each day, for the next few months, there will be MORE daylight, not less, is emotionally liberating.

I stand (or, well, sit) here before you a different Luke Burbank. Have I played even one moment of Ultimate Frisbee in my life? Absolutely not! Would I be there in a heartbeat if you invited me to play some at 6 p.m. tonight? You bet your sweet tuchus!

Today, everything feels like potential.

A while back Congress almost passed a law leaving us on Daylight Saving Time all year round. Meaning we’d never fall back again.

Think about how good we’d all get at Frisbee with that kind of extra daylight!

I say we take it a step further … pass a law next year that springs us ahead three hours. Yes, that first Sunday will be rough, I’m not going to sugar coat it. But after that? All those warm spring nights, when it wouldn’t get dark until 11 p.m. or midnight? I mean, just the money we’d save on our lighting bills.

“But, Luke, won’t that mean sunrise won’t be until 1 p.m.?” Maybe?

Look, I’m no Galileo, I honestly haven’t thought this through very well. I’m just a guy brimming with excitement, sitting here in front of you on the Best Day of the Year, hoping you’ll invite me out to do something fun tonight.

But not too late, because I’m taping “60 Minutes,” and it’s going to be a good one.

       
Story produced by Young Kim and Liza Monasebian. Editor: Emanuele Secci.