Don't Fry Day 2014

I’m north of 60, and prior to checking into The Hotel Melanoma in 2003 I had a whole lot of unprotected fun in the sun. I was ‘tanning my hide’ while running, hiking, biking, skiing and playing a very sketchy game of golf. So parts of my mole-covered ‘hide’ bear a striking resemblance to worn leather golf grips. I was stupid—and the price of my stupidity was a Stage IIIC melanoma diagnosis and sixteen 24-hour cycles of toxic biochemotherapy. But that doesn’t mean you have to be. So tomorrow--Don't Fry Day--and every day, please protect the skin you’re in with some dang sunscreen and SPF 50 clothing.

In celebration of Don’t Fry Day 2014, here’s an ode to melanoma to the tune of “One Hit to The Body” from the Rolling Stones…



You fell out of the clear blue sky
To the darkness of moles
A spell of sore flesh did blight me
Fry crud starts to grow
So help me God

You burst in in a blaze of light
You unzippered the dark
Sun kiss took my health away
Sun cook strikes up the scars
And it's it's sun hits to the body
It runs straight to the scars
Sun hits to the body
Sure went straight to the scars
So help me God

It's one shot when you shove me
One shot when you grieve me
I don't need no unsure CT
I just need some peace
And it's sun hits to the body
It goes straight to skin scars
Sun choice calls out my name
It sure went straight to the mark

Sun punch and you knocked me down
Tore my defenses apart
Sun rounds took me out of the game
You did me some permanent harm
It took just sun hits
It took just sun hits
It’s plain enough to me
It’s plain enough to me
It’s plain enough to me
It's hurting me baby

Oh your ‘love’ is a sweet addiction
I can't clean you out of my veins
It's a lifelong affliction
That has damaged my brain
It took just sun hits to the body
To tear my defenses apart

Sun hits to the body
Sure went straight to the mark
Sun hits to the body
And this comes straight from the heart
Sun hits to the body
To the body, to the body
Comes straight to skin scars

Sun hits to the body
And this comes straight from the heart

Sun hits to the body
And this comes straight from the heart
That's all it took, that's all it took
So help me so help me so help me God
So help me so help me so help me God

Sun hits to the body
And this comes straight from the heart
Sun hits to the body
And this comes straight from the heart