I got my first real sunburn of the summer the other day–thought that I had enough tan to go to the beach without sunscreen.  Whoops!  I now have angry red skin that is asking my what it ever did to deserve such treatment every time that I sit down, lay down, or encounter pretty much any foreign object at all.

Its is amazing how our bodies react to such mistreatment.  They get onto healing right away, but in the same process, the body makes sure that it hurts enough that we will think twice before committing the same error again.  Of course, if we persist in the mistreatment, the body will just give up and deal with it the best it can.  In this case that is called a tan–protective pigment that won’t burn as easily.  Too much sun is still bad for us, and will still give us premature aging and possibly cancer, but at least it won’t hurt and have such a extreme reaction every time.  Its like a person that goes to smoke a cigarette for the first time–the cough and splutter as the toxic smoke enters the lungs, but if they persist the body caves in and doesn’t react so strongly.  After all, its given its warning, and if you don’t want to listen, thats up to you.   In other words, I think I will use sunscreen next time.