I do recall offering a warning about the astonishing prevalence of sequels.

Astonishing furthermore is the tenacity with which New Zealand, and indeed worldwide, media groups continue to play on our collective sense of unease; like when they tell us to wear sunscreen to avoid the sun’s cancer-causing rays, without bothering to mention that the majority of those creams/lotions contain cancer-causing properties in their own right meaning excessive use can lead to…

I guess the main thing is that people aren’t getting sunburned. They’re feeling much better about slathering their bodies in cancer-salve to avoid contracting melanoma skin cancer, while at the same time opening themselves up to a plethora of other forms of cancer thereby effectively negating the whole sun-smart/cancer-avoidance philosophy which I just know they were so hoping to abide.

…Cancer. It’s not false advertising per se, it’s misleading or deceitful advertising. Their creams do exactly what they say they’ll do: hide the bearer from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays for a given time. Anything else is incidental. Everybody knows that all drugs have side-effects, and refusing to recognise your beloved sunscreen as a drug won’t make it any less likely to kill you of ‘unrelated causes’.

Our ever-informative media also dictates that on top of sunscreen we should ‘wrap up’ with long-sleeved shirts, wide-brimmed hats, and of course sunglasses, lest we should look any less awesome than we absolutely have to. In fact according to what our media will have you believe, our sun in the sky and anyone walking the land with less than dark to swarthy skin, are simply not miscible counterparts. According to modern media these unfortunate fair-skinned souls ought to wrap themselves up in their cotton shirts and sombreros along with their aviators and granny-panties, ensuring a liberal daubing of cancer-salve before embarking on any kind of summertime excursion; but here’s the issue I take with that.

As warm blooded people we require heat to survive. Given that we additionally require adequate absorption of the minerals calcium and phosphorous – also a functional immune system to fight that big C should it eventuate – if along with our heat requirement we could grab some vitamin D to facilitate the aforementioned functions, I’d say that’d be a pretty big bonus, yeah?

Alright, who’s going to tell me the easiest way to pick up some vitamin D?

It should be noted, although sunlight hours during the winter months dwindle, the body’s requirement for sunlight doesn’t; which probably goes some way to explaining peoples’ lacking in wintertime vigour.

Gosh, but how does one subject themselves to the vitality that is sunlight, while avoiding the scourge that is sunlight?

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Muddy Ray Shinn

Photography by Isti Answer