Fun And Done, In The Sun

It really wasn’t a wise idea for a kid of Celtic descent with naturally pale and freckled skin to be a teenage sun god. But that’s what I was, working for several summers as a bronzed (and often burnt) lifeguard. And I kept up the quest for that deep summer tan long after my work took me indoors— I might have become an office-bound lawyer, but by golly I wasn’t going to look like one.

Little did I know that my 50th birthday ‘gift’ would turn out to be a Stage IIIc melanoma diagnosis. But if I had known, would I have foregone those tans and pursued all of my outdoor activities under a layer of good sunscreen? Would I have listened to the warnings of an old guy who got cooked so done in the sun that years later he was almost done for good? I don’t honestly know the answers to those questions. Nevertheless, I’ll sign off with a musical public service announcement, a new version of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s “Just a Song Before I Go”…



Just a song before you glow,
To whom it may concern.
Tanning in the sun so round
It's easy to get burned.

When the tests were over
More cancer they had shown,
And when I opened up that door
I found I'm not alone.

Docs help me with my new case,
I’m praying for nine lives
Treating me for the Black C,
And with those friendly eyes.

Going through infusion weeks
I took drugs for so long.
Docs still go poke at me in gloves,
But C has flown.

Just a song before you glow,
A lesson to be learned.
Tanning in that sun so round
It's easy to get burned.