We're coming down the backstretch, heading into the last turn and the finish line is within sight. Okay, maybe that's an immoderate metaphor, but summer is within shouting distance.
I look out the window as I write, and the March sun is sparkling in the sky, the scotch broom is in bloom, birds are singing and building nests, and the daffodils are spinning their little heads off looking at the sun. Oh, yeah-the dandelions are rearing their miserable little heads as well.
Everywhere, the flowers are celebrating spring, the cherry trees are in bloom, the magnolias are pregnant with blossoms and deciduous trees are radiant with buds ready to explode into a canopy of green beauty.
Sunshine. We in the Northwest love our golden orb. I guess they must feel similarly in places like Wisconsin and North Dakota, but I think those of us in this corner of the land have a fervor bordering on addiction for sunshine. We get more than a little giddy when our favorite weather forecaster promises us "sun breaks."
An article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for March 16 pointed out that we don't get enough vitamin-D from sunshine, important for calcium absorption and bone health. Kelly Morrow, a nutrition instructor at Bastyr University, said that people living above the 35th degree latitude aren't getting enough sunshine. She said that people living in Seattle-that would be 48 degrees latitude-are sunshine-deficient about seven months of the year.
Hey, Kelly, we could have all told you that.
I think this goes a long way toward explaining why we see milk-white and often not very attractive legs sticking out of shorts in the winter months if we see the sun. Don't get me wrong; I'm not endorsing the wearing of shorts by the vast majority of our population. I'd say 80 percent of the people I've seen in shorts have no business displaying their bodies in public. I went to see the Bodies exhibit downtown, and I found some of them less repellent than many of the live bodies walking around town in various states of undress.
Let's face the truth: we are sun worshipers. We literally start counting the extra minutes of daylight beginning Dec. 22, and we begin to mourn on June 22, knowing the days will start getting shorter-though we don't really notice it that much until September.
We watch, either with glee or a sense of remorse, as the weather forecasters on television give us the sunrise and sunset times.
Of course, we're also bombarded with warnings about skin cancer, causing some of us to go about like so many hooded monks, smearing our faces with white creams and hiding from the sunlight in our basements like descendants of Count Vladimir III, also known as Vlad The Impaler, or, more popularly, Dracula.
There must be a reason why we lost most of our body hair. I like to think it's so we can absorb some sunshine in order that our metabolism can make the nutrients we need. Beside, would anyone give a rip about George Hamilton if he were simply covered with hair? He'd just be another fuzzy primate.
It seems that a modicum of common sense might apply here. We need fresh air and sunlight for our vitamin D, our immune systems, probably for reasons we don't even understand yet and certainly for a healthy and balanced life.
Don't strip down to your shorts and sprawl on the beach or your back yard and doze off for hours. That's bad, and you may well find yourself ingesting drugs that have you upchucking like a novice merchant marine.
On the other hand, when the sun isn't too strong and the temperature too hot, a nice walk or a hike or a bicycle ride in short sleeves is more likely to do you more good than harm.
You do have to be careful about getting too much sun, but that doesn't translate into no sun at all. If you're concerned, take it slowly. Just stick a bare foot out the door for a few minutes. Each day, extend the time a little, then make it your whole leg, then half your body, and before long, you'll find yourself comfortably sunning your entire body for short periods of time. And you'll be happier and healthier for the effort.
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