The Aldara Treatment

I knew that using Aldara on the skin cancer on my lip would cause it to increase in size for a while but the darned thing has actually doubled already and I only applied it twice. It still bugs me that I should be afflicted like this because I've been careful for many years to keep my face out of the sun but I know it's the sun damage from my early years that's the culprit.

Life is like that. When you're young and having fun (sunbathing, boozing, using street drugs, having indiscriminate sex), you don't think of the consequences that you could face in later years. It's hard to imagine that if you're doing any of those things you just might be making life changes that will seriously affect you some time down the line.

I pity the poor souls who have been silly enough to post compromising pictures of themselves on the internet because they are sure to pop up publicly when they're least expected. I pity the poor souls who think they are immune to alcoholism or drug addiction and stupidly play with those fires. Some times you just can't escape the consequences of your actions and, if you're unlucky, they'll bite you in the butt.

I've mainly lived my life on the careful side, being too timid to try anything I consider dangerous or disagreeable. That's not so good, either, but it just happens to be the way I am. I don't want my children or grandchildren to be as fearful as I am but I do want them to think before they leap. I want them to enjoy life to the hilt but to do so with clear and conscious thought.

There are so many things I wish I'd done with my life but, being the careful person I am, none of them are especially adventurous. I wholeheartedly wish I'd pursued a higher education and I wholeheartedly wish I'd been a better mother. I wish I'd travelled more and gently partied more but those are frivolous wishes. We all will leave this world with passions unexplored and unspoken and there's nothing much we can do about it. I cope by being the best person I possibly can today and that's okay.

I know a few people who were dedicated sun worshippers back in the day and who have been afflicted with this darned skin cancer. I really believe that the hardest hit people were of my generation because later generations benefitted from the wise use of sun blocking lotions that us older folk had no idea we needed. Skin cancer was the furthest thing from our minds as we lined up, row upon row, on the beaches basking under the hot summer sun in the 1950's and 1960's. A lot of us are reaping the delayed and unwanted rewards today.

As I said, enjoy a good and fun life but do it with your eyes wide open to the consequences...and there are consequences (good and bad) to every blessed thing you do.