Sunlight is the Greatest Disinfectant

"Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman." - Justice Louis D. Brandeis

I've always liked that quote.  Mr. Brandeis is talking about transparency and the fact that when things are kept in darkness, things fester, grow, and get worse.  It is only when you turn on the light switch and shine the light on it, that things can be seen openly, honest dialogue can occur, and remedies can be developed to heal the situation and right wrongs.

Mr. Brandeis was an associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939. In reading a little about him HERE, this caught my eye:

"Among Brandeis's key themes was the conflict he saw between 19th-century values, with its culture of the small producer, and an emerging 20th-century age of big business and consumerist mass society. McCraw notes that Brandeis's "hostility to the new consumerism found vivid expression in his own behavior. Though himself a millionaire, he disliked most other wealthy persons, being profoundly disturbed by their ostentatious consumption." He never shopped for his own clothes, preferring to reorder the same suits that served him well, nor did he own a yacht like his friends, but was satisfied with his canoe.

But in general, Brandeis felt that consumers were becoming "servile, self-indulgent, indolent, [and] ignorant." The consumer, he said, "had abrogated his role as a countervailing power against bigness... He lies not only supine, but paralyzed, and deserves to suffer like others who take their lickings 'lying down.'" He was repelled by the flaunting materialism overtaking America, often denouncing conspicuous consumption."

Very interesting.  If he was repelled by materialism and consumerist mass society seventy-something years ago, well, he'd have a conniption today!

Sunlight - a great disinfectant

But back to the sunlight quote.  In a very literal sense, we find that sunlight is indeed a good disinfectant.  When we milk our cows, we tie a muslin cloth rag over the milking buckets and milk through the rag.  The clean rag serves as a filter, preventing pieces of hay, hair, flies, and other impurities from getting into the milk. When we get back to the house, we carefully untie the rag, soak it in a soapy water solution with a capful of bleach, wring it out, and put it on the clothesline outside to dry all day long.  The ultraviolet rays (UV) kills bacteria quite effectively.

I probably need to relocate our clothesline as the pecan tree has grown such that the clothesline doesn't get direct sunlight until around noon due to the shade that the pecan tree provides.  From noon until late afternoon the sunlight does its job.  When you pull the cloth off of the line and smell it, it smells fresh and clean.  That reminds me, sleeping on crisp, clean sheets that have been hung outside on a clothesline is a real treat.

One final thought about sunlight.  In addition to being a great disinfectant, it also keeps your whites, white.  Somehow it bleaches fabric.  It doesn't only bleach fabric. We notice the color of our Jersey cows lighten significantly during summer months, returning to their normal light brown and reddish color in the late fall.

Let the sunshine in - both literally AND figuratively!!