Life Change #6: I Forget to Wear Sun Block

Today I slather on sun block. On my face, forehead, nose, on my ears (my ears peel really badly when they get sunburned). I’ll put it on my arms and chest, and I will apply lip balm with an SPF rating of 25, and I will walk out into the warm sun of late summer in Northern California. I will do this, as I should have done most every day this summer, and for many summers before that. And yet, all summer, in the backpack I carry around with me most of the time, I carry SPF 50 waterproof sun block. For the last month or so, I have even had some special SPF 45 sun block that is made entirely differently and blocks special rays that cause wrinkles and wreak untold havoc on free and not so free radicals and all that stuff. I have no excuse for my oversight. Somehow, deep ingrained in my brain, against all scientific understanding, I carry with me the completely absurd thought that being tanned is a sign of good health.

I am a product of the late 70’s, of Southern California, when tanning on the beach was considered an activity, and the sunscreen of choice was Baby Oil. I recall feeling unhealthy in the winter because I was growing paler, and losing my hard earned tan. We admired those who had garnered a deeper darker tan than our own. We particularly admired those girls who seemed to have achieved tans with no apparent tan line. We admired them a lot. In fact, that may be why we bothered to go out and sit in the hot sun at all…so we could admire those girls with imaginary tan lines…lots of imagination involved with those tan lines.

I wonder about the girls I went to high school that truly committed themselves to the art of the tan. There was a handful. It took some serious time and effort to maintain that bronze mocha tone that seemed at the time to reflect the picture of health. They were typically long and lean, and wore about as little bikini as possible in order to show off their life’s work. They were always there, at the beach. And I wonder now, if they are still tan and lean, or perhaps they are less tan and wrinkled, or worse. Another good reason to attend my high school reunion, I suppose.

Now of course, I have friends that have been stricken with skin cancer, and we fully understand that tanning is no sign of health. In fact it seems to suggest that the sun is microwaving your body to a crisp like a piece of bacon. How, though do I undo the wiring from so long ago…don’t get me wrong…next to exercising, this is probably the most important habit I will break on this little journey….I guess I just had hoped that when I got that body back in shape, I’d be able to take my shirt off and get a tan.

Still, this is a tough topic to be smug or funny about. At the end of the day, it takes, what 15 seconds in the morning to take care of this…maybe another 30 seconds around mid day if you are in the sun for a long time. I really ought to be able to add this to my daily ritual. I’ll be outside watching my daughter and her friends play soccer most of the day, and it will be sunny, and today, I will be protected…is it too late? I think at some level that has been the question that has been at the back of my mind each day I march out into the sun with nary a hat.
As a (nearly) lifelong Californian, the word “sun” has been synonymous with, well, everything. So much of our lives take place outside, that I have come to feel uncomfortable if for some reason weekend activities keep me indoors. The sun can be warm most any time of year, and as nice as it is in the summer time, it is more so in the winter when we watch football games on TV that are played on the “icy tundra” a while it is 66 degrees and clear outside. I have heard it described that the greatest travel advertisement for Southern California is the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl on New Years Day, while most of the country is covered in snow and ice, the invariably sunny warm weather for these events seems to rub the salt intended to melt ice into the open wounds of the viewers. Almost seems unfair.

We even use “sun” as an indication of happy healthy things….a sunny disposition describes a happy, upbeat person, while a walk on the sunny side of the street evokes feelings of warmth and well being, like you are headed in the right direction. “You are the sunshine of my life” is an appreciation directed at someone whom you love. It is a difficult adjustment to make to suddenly consider the sun a danger.

I guess we deserve it though. If we have dumped chemicals into the air that erode or destroy the protective ozone layer around our planet, then I guess this is our reward. What is odd, however, is how we as a family of nations respond to these discoveries. IF it is determined or even suspected that something we are doing is making the sun dangerous to us, shouldn’t that behavior stop immediately while we sort it out. If you suspect that each time someone shoves a sharp stick in their eye, they wind up losing sight in the eye; it seems prudent that step one is to stop with the sticks in the eye, while we figure out what is going on. The retort, though, today seems to be if some chemical is dangerous to the ozone layer, that chemical is phased out (over what is usually like several decades) or the very data is questioned, thereby leady to a series of arguments while the lawyers figure it all out…meanwhile, bye bye ozone. “I will continue to shove sticks into my eye, until you can prove to me that it is dangerous.” I’d advise setting the sticks aside immediately.

Perhaps, then, the reason that things have changed in the 40 years or so that I have been a sun worshipper is because the sun, or at least its ability to harm us, has changed. We don’t have the planetary sun screen in place, so we have to apply our own. I am sure as time goes by, the sunscreen that we apply will become stronger and stronger as we continually erode the ozone layer. And I wonder, will there come a time when the sun screen itself is so potent, that it will actually begin to harm us, and the suns rays pose such a threat that we will not really be able to go out in the sun at all. We will have to change a lot of songs, and phrases….we will rejoice at the “beautiful cloud filled skies”, and I will “walk exclusively on the shady side of the street”…and you will be the “dark cloud of my life”.

It will be an adjustment. Learning to love the clouds instead of the blue skies. Hopefully it will never get that bad. For now I will focus on applying sun block whenever I will be outside on a sunny day for more than a few minutes at a stretch. This exposure to the sun is not confined to summer afternoons by the pool…no…it is a year round commitment I make today. . I recognize that this is a change that may well save my life, or at least prolong it. Maybe I will have fewer wrinkles as I age, and maybe a few less freckles, and maybe I will simply change my idea of what a picture of health is…maybe even I’ll have to buy a wide brimmed hat. I just hope that in 10 or 12 years they don’t discover that the powerful and mysterious chemicals they need to use in order to block the sun’s rays aren’t killing us in some other insidious cumulative way, much as they said the sun was doing. Given the choice, I’d rather have it be the sun…so much more beautiful to say “I love the way the sun lights up your face”, as opposed to “I love the way the sun block shines on your pale skin.”


Update on Previous Life Changes (Day Six):

The exercise program faced a daunting challenge today…I really didn’t feel like it…after spending much of the day in the hot sun (well protected as noted above!) I really was not into finding the 45 minutes or so to sweat and breathe hard. Despite my distaste, I managed to force myself to do it…and as always, I felt like I had accomplished something when I was done…I knew there would be days like that and today I emerged victorious over sloth and lethargy. Not only did I wear sun block, I reapplied at about noon! I can already feel myself growing more pale…
Swearing was a mixed success…let’s just leave it at that, and on the hydration front, along with my 4 full Nalgene bottles (really easy to do when standing in near 100 degree heat), I supplemented my water intake with several beers in the heat of later afternoon, which tasted really good and until I am told (or convince myself) that is a bad habit worth changing, I will simply consider it “extra credit” on the road to ideal hydration.