It is my considered opinion, based on various news stories lately, that one can live to be 100 by giving up all the things that would make it worth living to be 100. It's up to each individual to make their judgments about what's worth it and what isn't, but only when they're mature enough to do so. I was just reading an article about how girls are still going to tanning salons before prom, despite skyrocketing rates of melanoma. If I had my way, tanning would be treated like any other carcinogenic pleasure behaviour and banned for minors, and be required to come with all sorts of dire warning labels for adults. I have never deliberately tanned, nor to the best of my knowledge have my sister or my daughter. My face is still relatively smooth, and I use moisturizers to keep it that way, but despite using hats and parasols anytime I'm not engaged in athletic activity I still pick up a little color on vacation, and almost always get at least one bad burn along my shoulders and upper back. I also get the typical left-arm tan of the commuter who does their own driving. (I now keep sunblock on my desk to put on before I head home for precisely that reason, and there's some at home for when summer sets in and I'm not wearing a jacket in the mornings.) I have sunspots all over my hands, arms, shoulders, and back, and a few on my face. When I went to the dermatologist for a suspicious mole on my side (which was *not* in an area that tends to get sun) she remarked on them but didn't seem too concerned; I've been meaning to get my partner and myself into the habit of weekly mutual mole checks because I know that the number of burns I've had on my fair skin puts me at risk.
My sister was originally a china-doll blonde, but she runs long distances outdoors almost every day, and I think that her face is now permanently tanned. Looked at closely, it appears tough and wrinkled; I'm three and a half years older, but could probably pass for ten years younger than she. I need to watch out for that now that I have started running; I have yet to find a sunblock that doesn't run despite what it says on the bottle, but at the very least I will slather myself below the eyes and always wear a hat.
The thing that I find so strange about the whole thing is that, less than two hundred years ago, a tan was to be avoided at all costs and the loveliest skin was accounted to be the fairest. At that time, most work involved outdoor labor, so white skin indicated that you did not have to work out in the sun but instead could make a priority of staying inside where it was cooler. Now the opposite is true -- pale skin means being in an office all day, while tan skin supposedly means that you have the leisure to loll about on the beach. The media present this as true, and young people who have not yet developed the ability to critically judge the risks in their choices buy it hook, line, and sinker. It is imperative that not only the government enact the restrictions that will protect them from an industry no less indifferent to their health than Big Tobacco, but that a massive campaign be made to change the standard of beauty to one that does not lead to scarring and death. It is pointless to hope that most teenagers and young adults -- and even children, these days -- will stop wanting to conform to the popular notion of how they should look. Therefore, we must give them a healthier goal toward which they can strive.
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