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Let it Shine

I’m going to tell you a little secret about the publishing industry. Sometimes we hire photographers, but sometimes we simply use “stock.” I first learned about stock photos about 10 years ago at breakfast when I noticed my dentist smiling at me from the Wheaties® box. Later, as he poked around in my mouth, he told me he had sold the photo, which included his charming daughter, for $100 to a stock company. That company then sold it around the country and made lots of money. It’s a great business. Getty Images here in Fremont is getting rich doing it.

Our covers are usually shot by the talented freelance photographer Ingrid Pape-Sheldon, but this month the cover comes from a stock library. I proposed the photo, probably because I want to be like this woman. A little red in the face after a good run, relaxed, and far from a computer in both mind and body. (I also want a stomach like hers, but then, I want a lot of things.)

To me, the image evokes summer and all of its promise. It seemed perfect for June, which is one of those great starting months like January and September, when we feel inspired to make resolutions for what we will accomplish in the months ahead. On my summer list this year is remembering to water my plants and cleaning out the basement. After reading writer Diane Dash’s rundown of music festivals and Roberta Greenwood’s story on runs and walks around the Sound, I added attending a few outdoor concerts and starting a walking group.

But the most important item on my summer agenda is perhaps the most pleasant: simply getting outdoors whenever I can. Wenda Reed’s essay “No Child Left Inside” reminds us to push kids out the back door as frequently as possible so they don’t develop what author Richard Louv calls “nature-deficit disorder.” In Last Child in the Woods, he laments that our current generation of children spends far too little time experiencing nature, whether it’s observing snails in the backyard or roaming the great outdoors.

But it’s not just kids who need to get outside. Since 2004, study after study has linked breast cancer to vitamin D3 deficiencies. Other diseases that hit women hardest, like multiple sclerosis and osteoporosis, are also being tied to a lack of this tricky vitamin. Tricky because it isn’t found naturally in a lot of foods, and tricky because most of the vitamin D3 our bodies can use is produced through our skin’s exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet rays. That means getting out when the sun is shining is particularly important here in the Northwest. It doesn’t mean throwing away the sunscreen, however. Skin cancer is also high in our region, so heeding current recommendations of 15 to 20 minutes of unprotected sun exposure a day is probably wise.

I guess our mothers had it right when they told us to get plenty of rest, drink our milk and go outside to play. I wonder if eating carrots really does give you better eyesight.

Happy summer!

Marianne Scholl
Co-founder and Publisher

©June 2007 Caliope Publishing Company