Solar power

I was out at the pool today trying to determine how it could possible feel better to be directly in the sun, than home in shade with a fan.

It struck me how energizing direct sun feels.  When in the heat of the sun I honestly feel my skin tingle and yes start to burn (I am a pasty skinned Irish gal if you didn't know!)   I think in five minutes you can watch the freckles start to pop up.

Right now after being at the pool every day of the summer, I am sporting my first ever tan.  Which really is more like a collection of very close together freckles!  On the one hand it does kinda look less scary when I put a swim suit on - I imagine some poor souls have been blinded by my ghost like coloring before.  But on the other hand, Am I destroying my skin and setting myself up for certain cancer by being outside so much?

What about my children, they all started out with perfectly smooth freckle free skin, am I condemning them to early wrinkles and drowning in freckles?  We wear hats a great deal of the time, we apply sun screen before prolonged exposure, but my girls just tan and my boys get freckles.

But we also read articles like this one, talking about how important Vit D is.  We do take a daily vitamin, but I know most of that tends to flush through the body without bothering to stop along the way.

So like anything else, it is all about 'walking the line'.  Some sun everyday, but not too much, Some sunscreen when activities are sustained in the sun, but not too much, since we also read plenty of articles on how bad those ingredients are.  Some attempts to 'cover up' - but not so much that we can't enjoy the sun.

It would be far easier to just pick one or the other, never go in the sun, or never worry about the sun.  The world doesn't seem to be scientifically designed to be Black and White like that.  It is all shades of grey.