Sunday, March 30, 2014

Suffering From Sun Guilt

I assume most folks think that "sun guilt" is something experienced by those who forget to apply vast amounts of sunscreen. But no..
The "sun guilt" I am referring to is something uniquely Alaskan. Caused not by sun exposure, but the idea that you are not running towards it when available to you.
Let me explain. Some may naively assume cloudy Seattle or rainy Portland are the dreariest cities in the USA, blissfully unaware of the dark horrors witnessed by most Alaskans.  When glancing at silly charts describing "sun indexes of US towns" --one can see that they don't even bother to mention Anchorage or Juneau in their little graphs...(I assume it is simply too depressing). Thus, Seattle (wrongly) always wins the title of "gloomiest city" or whatever.
Now that you know that Alaska is the unofficial winner of the 'least sunniest climate contest', I can better explain the phenomena of "sun guilt".
This is a strange affliction experienced by Alaskans on a bright and sunny day.  It starts with all the announcements on the radio: "get out of work early!" or "did you look outside today?" Followed by friends calling or coworkers commenting--"this is the best day ever!"  All this hoopla because it is sunny and bearable outside. Now, some people actually do jump into their cars and leave work early (I am not kidding) and grab their hiking boots, kayaks, bikes or what have you. But then some of us--for whatever reason, may just not be in the mood to get out there. And that's when the "guilt" hits. 
You keep thinking to yourself-- "why the heck am I indoors today?" or "at least I need to get out and BBQ".  It is ruthless, as this guilt continues eating away at you. Until, at the very least, you shuffle over to the window and sit there like a lazy cat, basking in the warmth. All this anguish caused by the infrequent sun...

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