The Beatles’ song “Here comes the sun” popped up on my Pandora radio station (called Ginju Radio if anyone is interested in the eclectic mix I like) yesterday and really made me think. Its lyrics spoke to me, especially because I live in Florida where we basically had about a week of spring and we are already onto summer. One of my coworkers recently tweeted he liked this time of year best. I agree. I tweeted him back, noting that I automatically wake up happy. The Beatles were onto something. Thinking on sunshine and its effects on my life, I immediately thought of several things…the Sunshine state, Vitamin D and sunscreen, "You are my sunshine," and other random thoughts (like whether Walmart's yellow smiley face was inspired by kiddie drawings of the sun - what is a sun without a smiley face?).
I am now a citizen of Florida – the Sunshine state – for better or worse. I’ve got all the paperwork to back it up, even though I sometimes slip and call Virginia home. Florida has many great features: no state income tax, the ability to tint my car windows (not that I have the money), proximity to GREAT beaches (sorry VA, you got nothing on FL there), interstate speed limits (generally 70 mph), and of course number #1 for me is the climate. And there's so much to explore in the Sunshine state!
I never really thought about vitamins much. My mom used to buy them for me, until I told her to stop since I never remembered to take them. The idea that you get vitamins from direct sun exposure is exciting. I love sitting in the sun…weird I know because it’s not good for the skin and sometimes it can be darn right hot. But, given a choice of sitting in shade or the sun I choose the sun. I am working on wearing sunscreen everyday (difficult for me as I’m extremely picky about lotion and I have yet to find an affordable body lotion with spf that I like). I tried looking up why Vitamin D is good for us on Wikipedia and got some scientific mumbo jumbo I didn’t feel like deciphering. What is clear is there are a lot of foods I don’t like that either naturally have or are fortified with Vitamin D – fish, bread, milk, yogurt, breakfast cereal, etc. So sitting in the sun is probably okay, right? Its health effects include something about possibly reducing risk for cancer, cardiovascular disease, and the flu…scientists don’t seem to know much.
“You are my sunshine” is an awesome song. That’s all I have to say about that. ;)
I think we should appreciate the sun more and I’m not talking pagan holidays (although May Day might be a good holiday to use), but a true day of appreciation and learning about the many ways the sun affects our life. We have Earth Day...why not Sun Day (and Sunday does not count). I’m going to start my new year’s resolutions from now on in May…because I really don’t feel motivated in January. Coming on May 1st - May Day Resolutions…