There is a super movie I watched the other day:
About Time (2013) (SF drama re love and time travel.1080p.BRx264) 5 Stars - that's
my rating.
There's quite a lot of humour in the movie.
In it, there is reference to a "song: by Baz Luhrmann - "Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen".
This song is referred to in the movie
"About Time" thus:
Narrator: "There's a song by Baz Luhrmann called Sunscreen. He says that worrying about the future is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum."
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The song is a series of spoken jokes, and the last line of the song -
"But trust me on the sunscreen." - led me to suspect that the author's "advice" to wear sunscreen may have been tongue-in-cheek as just so much more "bad advice", sunlight in fact being
not a toxin but a natural "food" for our skin as it causes the skin to produce vitamin D3 - which is used in calcium metabolisation to build/strengthen bones and is also thought to help prevent cancer (just avoid getting sunburn).
In the UK, rickets in children was common in the gloomy/cloudy North of England until the doctors discovered that it was an epidemiological factor - the children simply weren't being exposed to enough sun - so they were given vitamin D3 supplements and the problem went away.
However, wearing sunscreen
IS recognised as being good:
- (a) for "Cancer charities", who receive funding from sunscreen producers whose products they endorse/promote.
- (b) for the sunscreen manufacturers, as it is a profitable product which they don't have to prove actually prevents sunburn, and consumer association tests apparently indicate that many brands do just that (nothing), and that the chemicals in sunscreen may be harmful/detrimental to human health, commonly causing allergy/irritation and some are even thought to be carcinogenic risk factors.
The "song" is just the narration of a slightly updated ("Class of 99") recitation of the following rather amusing essay, put to music:
Essay title: Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young.Date: June 1st 1997 ( 1997-06-01)
Author: Mary Schmich, a columnist with the Chicago Tribune
Source:
https://www.chicagot...n-column-column.htmlIt's an amusing essay and worth a read.
(essay in the spoiler below)
Spoiler
Inside every adult lurks a graduation speaker dying to get out, some world-weary pundit eager to pontificate on life to young people who'd rather be Rollerblading. Most of us, alas, will never be invited to sow our words of wisdom among an audience of caps and gowns, but there's no reason we can't entertain ourselves by composing a Guide to Life for Graduates.
I encourage anyone over 26 to try this and thank you for indulging my attempt.Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97:
Wear sunscreen.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.
Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing every day that scares you.
Sing.
Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss.
Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.
Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch.
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.
Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.
Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.
Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.
Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.
Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.
Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.
Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.
Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen.
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