TotD: Wear Sunscreen

You remember that song that came out about ten or twelve years ago where the guy gave advice about what to do after graduation? Well, though I haven't listened to that song in years, I have to say that one of the most important things that he says is: "Wear sunscreen."

Today, I had the privilege of talking to a young gentleman who works on a Caribbean cruise liner in the ship's salon. When I asked him what he specialized in, he said he did most everything that the salon offered. I found this particularly interesting because the man was standing in a local body care store looking for aloe vera for his sunburn.

Looking at the man, you'd say he was the manicured type. His nails were trimmed, his hair was styled, and he worked in the salon doing skin peels and hair treatments, yet his own skin was badly burnt. He works in a spa, and yet he too does not take into account the damage that 'doing nothing' can do.


Now being pasty-white myself, some would say that I really have no place to talk about this, but here's an example for you that I found on Facebook a while ago via The Chicago Museum of Science and Technology.

This is a picture of a trucker who has been driving a truck for 20+ years and has never thought to put on anything to protect his skin. Driving a truck, the sun enters through the driver's side window (his left). Descriptions of this picture have labeled him as the man whose face is two different ages.

I do not want today's thought of the day to seem vain; the actual effects of the sun are not what I'm getting at. What I would rather everyone focus on is the change that can occur without anyone noticing- the harm that something so seemingly harmless can do over time. Without even noticing, we change. So the thought of the day is:

Once you've become the person you'd like to be... Wear Sunscreen. Change is inevitable, but damage is not.