I do not want skin cancer. I'm not sure I can think of anyone who actually would want ANY cancer, for that matter, but I am particularly not interested in having skin cancer. It's sneaky. It leaves scars when they cut it out. Favorite TV personalities get killed off their shows with metastatic versions of it. Ick.
But I don't want to be soooooo pasty white that I LOOK like I have cancer. Honestly, I feel like I look ill if the middle of summer arrives and my skin is so pale and semi-transparent that you can see the roots of my leg hairs on my most clean-shaven days.
I figure I have melanin for a reason; why not put it to good use? Yeah, yeah, the doctors all say that no tan is a healthy tan, but I think they're just jealous because they are locked up in the hospital all day and can't sit on the boats we help them buy.
I also do NOT want a sunburn. So I slap on the SPF 70 and hope enough of it wears off to let just a teensy few of the sun's harmful rays stimulate my freckle-production that is the closest I'll ever come to being tan. Sunburn hurts. Tan does not.
This seems awfully petty, now that I read over it. Maybe more than a little vain. I should protect my skin. But hey, I should also lay off the Firefly, ice cream, cheese, and other yummies while taking up a regular and reasonably intense exercise routine.
So, I'm going to keep working on trying to find the balance which gives me an identifiable shade of brown without turning me into a lobster or setting me up for chemo later on. Wish me luck.
2 comments:
And how do you expect to do this? Pool? Tanning bed? I'm curious. This Irish girl wants to know!
Meanwhile, I will still be white and transparent. Stand next to me to feel better next time!
Funny you should ask, Malisa, since I actually edited out the line where I pondered how the part-Irish in me kicked the part-Cherokee's butt so hard that I've never looked anything but very European. (Maybe not Cherokee... it's such a tiny little piece, and I can't recall which. Shame on me.)
Anyway, to answer your question, I can spend all day, every day at the pool and the beach and still come away without much sun to show... just a little wishful thinking.
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