This May Feel Like A Lot
This may feel like a lot, so please hang with me.
I grew up with the knowledge that my mother developed skin cancer related to tanning her body, with baby oil, on Virginia Beach.
I grew up in safe communities where it was possible for me to lay in the sun, with or without sunscreen, with the desire of acquiring a tan.
For many years, I visited tanning booths.
I felt better, bronzed. I never considered the fact that I was looking to acquire the hue of a human who lived a more challenging experience than I did, based simply on the color of my skin.
I am not telling you that you are wrong for liking your skin when it is bronzed. I too, prefer a sun kissed glow. I admit that not because it’s right or wrong, but because I’m human.
AND
As a grown person, I wear sunscreen when I go outside, because I don’t wish to follow in my mom‘s footsteps. At least in a dermatological sense.
This is a responsibility that I take seriously, because it is one way that I can stack the health odds in my favor.
Sunscreen has been demonstrated to reduce the risk of skin cancer. So, because I don’t want skin cancer, I will wear it.
I know that it is summertime. And I know that beaches are open. And pools are open. And folks want to have backyard parties as though this were a regular year. I want that, too.
But this is not a regular year. We are living through a pandemic. And making a choice to gather in groups, without masks, is a dangerous one. Even if you get COVID-19, and are fine afterward, humans at higher risk, around you, may not experience your positive outcome.
We also do not know about the long-term ramifications of acquisition of this disease. You could be fine now, and very not fine later. Please be thoughtful.
This is like wearing sunscreen.
And at the end of the day, the humans who were the most vulnerable at the beginning of this pandemic, the ones whose skin tones are desirable right now, will be the ones that will suffer most significantly as this pandemic continues.
Masks have been demonstrated to reduce rates of transmission of COVID-19. So because I don’t want to spread it, I wear one.
I love you and want you to be safe.
We all need to care right now.
