Subtle, no? |
The sun, that wicked orb with it's life-giving, life-taking rays of UV, IR and visible in betwixty. That same yellow bee that gives us beams of warmth and visibility brings a sting often left unchecked. I'm checked and I'm here to tell you how to check your skin before you wreck your skin.
Color me fortunate for having a melanoma-aware elder who presequently colored me near albino by virtue of their deeply stacked recessive genes. In all my year (and months) on this earth I've never earned the vaguest tan and I'm not ashamed. A golden glow may be chic but the classic doodles of Da Vinci and Michael Angelo paint a paler picture of beauty, and as ugly as that Mona Lisa lady may be, she still shined almost reflectively with the pasty light of fairest skin.
I'm not discriminating based on tone or anything, bro-Patrick is half Mexican and he's as handsome a devil as God made him. I'm just advocating we all stick to our God-given shades since the alternative is more dangerous than second-hand smoke.
Negotiating a tan is a tricky matter, too. Not enough sun is no good at all and too much sun is all kinds of ouchy, itchy badnesses. A sunburn at my age more than doubles my odds of getting skin cancer later in life. I'm all about the ladies, don't get me wrong, but if my life is on the line they're going to have to take me as I am, chalky, chubby, elven-eared and all.
If you're going outside to celebrate this Fourth of July I recommend a discreet topical coating of sunscreen as pictured here. I'm wearing a very subtle cream called Matte Mega Blocker, SPF Infinitum. You can hardly tell it's on. There's many products on the market to choose from.
If you value your largest organ (your skin, silly, don't be immodest) then savor your greater health and don't want for abject itching, slather on the sunscreen and skip molting like a reptile. I'm a more finicky kitty than Morris and I can stand it. You owe it to yourself and your younglings to do the same for them. Your parents didn't know better, but now, officially, you do.
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