When the weather outside is insanely good, and it is actually very cold in the shade, but nice and warm in the sun, I think about the aprophocal (probably fake, a high tale) quote from Diogenes when he met Alexander the great:
Alexander the great, upon meeting Diogenes asked him he could give him whatever he wanted. Diogenes then said, “Move over, you’re blocking my sun.” (as he has sunbathing).
The funny thought, if you had all the riches in the world, the greatest joy is just being able to be in the sun all day?
Sunbathing
Isn’t it funny that we call it “sunbathing”? Which literally means, bathing in the sun?
I wonder, if there is a hygiene aspect here. Even Elon Musk said wittingly, the sun is the best disinfectant.
This is true. Asian people have traditionally known that in fact, the best way to disinfect something is actually to let it dry directly in the sun. This works well with things that smell, like smelly old bath towels, smelly old floor bath towel mats, your shoes etc.
Why are we so afraid of the sun now?
I am sure that it is certain that we do have lots of UV issues with the ozone layer etc. But funny thing, it seems like maybe a decade or two ago we talked a lot about all this pollution messing up the ozone there. Yet, this notion has fallen out of vogue and we talk about “climate change” instead. essentially all of these concepts are coming in and out of vogue; always these issues with the planet etc.
Certainly one thing I can attest to is pollution. If you have never been to some parts of industrial Vietnam, Cambodia, or other parts of Southeast Asia… You don’t really know how bad pollution is. Even Seoul South Korea, one of the most advanced places on the planet, the pollution there now is insanely bad.
Even all of the really rich mainland Chinese people; what do they do? Nobody wants to be a trillionaire in Beijing or anywhere in mainland China, or even in Shanghai… Apparently the pollution there is unbearable. Or would they prefer to do? Buy a nice house in Vancouver, or somewhere where the weather is good; beautiful greenery, trees, fresh air, etc. I think this is why real estate value in San Diego is so high; it may have the best climate on the planet or the West Coast.
Why does this matter?
I think the reason why this matters so much is that health may be one of the most critical things to our human thriving, and also, bodily physiological health. Apparently son exposure is becoming at things; the doctor saying that you need “at least“, 10 to 15 months of direct sun exposure a day.
Yeah the reason why I think this advice is not great is because it is too focused on trying to create a “one size fits all” approach to things.
For example, thinking about your country of origin is insanely critical. Why? The reason being that in fact, this matters.
for example I am Korean. My mom is from Busan South Korea, and my dad is from Seoul South Korea. My genetic heritage is from Korea, South Korea… What does this mean?
First, Korean people are almost like the Greeks, or the Mediterranean folks of Asia, east Asia. Why? Our skin is described as being olive green colored, which means we tan good.
For example the last month two months in LA, I’ve been trying to walk around topless and in short shorts as much as humanly possible, when the sunlight is out. As a consequence, I’ve developed a very beautiful tan, it even shocks me how wonderful my tan has become, and how beautiful my skin looks. I’ll just washing my legs other day, observing the tone of my legs and skin, massaging my skin, and delighting in how it glistened and the skin tone of it. I’ve actually never witnessed skin flesh that close-up which looks so beautiful.
I think this is where notions of the beach, beach weather is seen as so interesting and critical to people; I think people seek the beach and the beach weather because they want to get a good tan.
Also, note that “beach bombs” tend to be very very happy. Maybe it is because they get so much great sun exposure?
But how can I get a tan or how can I better improve the quality of my skin, without damaging my skin or getting sunburnt?
Once again, considering your cultural heritage is important here. For example if you’re from northern Sweden, let’s say Umea, genetically, your skin is going to be insanely pale because during the worst of winter, you literally might only get an hour or two of sunlight a day. Apparently this is why a lot of people in northern Sweden are alcoholics or have one of the highest rates of coffee consumption in the world; during these miserable winter months, when you literally cannot see the sun for that long, people get depressed.
But if we consider the genetic factor; let us assume that in northern Sweden there is only an hour of Sunday. And let us also assume that back in the day, people were just bundled up and outdoors and outside all day. As a consequence of your light skin pigment, your body would be able to absorb sufficient amounts of UV radiation from the sun, For optimal health.
However, let it say that your heritage is from northern Sweden, and then suddenly you moved to Arizona or LA or Southern California. Now there is a mismatch between your genetic heritage and your environment. That is, your skin is too light to be in the sun for that long. Therefore if your genetic heritage is from northern Europe, or higher places, not being in the sun for too long, or just bundling up and wearing lots of protective clothing is a good idea. Just imagine the people from Dune; head scarf, sunglasses, facemask, long sleeve everything, long pants etc.
Why are African British people, or people from African descent so depressed and miserable in London?
I met a really cool guy yesterday, African-American descent, but something he told me that was interesting about being “black“. The nuance is that not everybody who is proceeded as being “black“ is actually from Africa. For example, let us say that you’re from Egypt, or let us say that you from the Mediterranean, or, you’re from the Caribbean. Technically to say that your “African“, or from Africa is in accurate. Even told me that whenever you go meet people, they do not associate themselves with the continent; instead, they associate themselves with their country. for example, people are not “African“, or “from Africa; rather, they’re from Nigeria, Legos, Ethiopia,, etc.
A funny nuance is that in America, the notion of being “Asian“, or “Asian-American”, is a concept. Yet at the end of the day… If you go to Asia, people take insane offense if your Korean and you are mistaken as either Chinese or Japanese. Korean people hate Japanese people with a passion, because of how brutally they were colonized. Also the Vietnamese distain the Chinese, a long history of oppression. also people from Hong Kong really really hate the mainland Chinese, especially the successful rich mainland Chinese. People from Hong Kong don’t call themselves Chinese, they see they’re from “Hong Kong”. Also, they align themselves more with their British colonial heritage.
Jewish?
When I was back in Providence Rhode Island, I thought, “why are people so anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish?”
Especially when Kanye West said all this bad things about Jewish people. I decided to do a deep dive.
According to history, the best worst descriptor or history of Jewish people, the Jews, comes from the Roman historian