Moderation's the key?

I have to confess that I hate the sunlight scare. The fear that exposure to sunlight is going to give you horrible cancer and you will die. The fear that it accelerates aging and kills puppies.

It would seem to me that humans have been going through several hundred million years of evolution in exposure to the sunlight. Ever since that legged fish flopped out of the water and wriggled onto the beach, animals have been getting better and better at dealing with exposure to the sun.

And while over-exposure does have downsides, sunburns and, I'll admit, an increased risk of cancer, in the end sunlight is good for you. Each of those words is a separate link, by the way. Though the last way may be lost on women, the second will be lost on men. Equal opportunities.

And it's not even that sunburning is going to cause cancer. There's a learning curve here, and you have to figure out when to get out of the sun. But you certainly shouldn't be completely covered up, either. Get your Vitamin D. There's probably a reason sitting the sun just feels good. It excites the skin.

My suspicion is that your atoms (I've been worrying a lot about atoms lately) are experiencing a sort of "E.T. Phone Home" moment. We're all stellar ejecta in the end, products of the Big Bang. Forged from the same infinitely dense, cosmically hot explosion that created stars and planets and black holes. Feels good to get a little of that space radiation under our skins.

My theory is this falls under the Atkins Diet/Autism/ADHD fads. People will get their feet on the ground on this one and realize the hysteria. Indeed, it's happening now.

Which is good.

Befriend the sun.