Feedback and commentary on sunglasses
Dear James,
I appreciate your blog regarding sunscreen and sunglasses. I’ve never used sunscreen and I learned this from my dad. As he told me, God made us so that if we spent as much time (as possible) outdoors then we would build up a natural resistance to our skin being burnt by the sun. Now that I’m retired, I still spend most of the day outside and rarely even wear a hat; I can spend all day on the tractor wearing just shorts, t-shirt and boots and do not burn.
Regarding sunglasses, I got into the habit years ago of gazing directly at the sun while it is low on the horizon, either in the morning or evening. It really seems as if I can feel the effect throughout my body. I know I can certainly be out in the noonday sun and I never feel the need to shade my eyes.
I’ll take this opportunity as well to tell you how much [his wife—name withheld-JWB] and I appreciate and profit by your blogs and studies. Your teachings on the Arian Controversy have been excellent; I did not know there was so much strife within the church in this period. It lends perspective to issues today within the body of Christ.
In the love of Jesus our Master,
(Name withheld)
Comments by JWB: Thanks for the feedback, my friend. I just have to comment on your statement that you gaze directly at the sun while it is low on the horizon, either in the morning or evening. Since you do not wear glasses, are of retirement age, and presumably have been doing that gazing for many years, it apparently has not caused you any damage. But it reminded me of a little incident which happened when I was a child.
I must have been somewhere between five and eight years old. We lived on a farm. I was outside “helping” my mom to hang out the laundry on the clothes line in the back yard. She was telling me about how good the sun is for our health. And that we get vitamin D from the sun. She kept on hanging the clothes and then suddenly noticed I was no longer at her side. She turned and saw that I was staring into the sky.
“What are you doing?” she asked me.
“I’m looking at the sun to get some vitamin D,” I replied.
“Oh, no, no, no!” she said alarmed. “You should not ever stare directly at the sun because it can burn your eyes.”
I do not recall her using the word “retina,” but of course, I now understand what she meant. But I never did stare directly at the sun again. But your practice of staring at it very low in the sky interests me. Undoubtedly, it does not cause ill effects because the light is so much more diluted by the atmosphere in the very early morning and late evening. I may experiment with that a time or two; but nonetheless, I probably will not take up the practice on a daily basis (chuckle, chuckle).