The Dark Side

I have turned an odd shade of red. Not everywhere, a bit on my arms and neck, but most annoyingly, the tops of my feet have these big red splotches. Now normally, when I've had a sunburn, I haven't minded. In fact, while being a camp counselor, it was actually rather fun. Kids love climbing on peoples' backs, but for some reason they decided they shouldn't climb on my back /because/ I had a sunburn. Even though most sunburns tend to be ignorable.

It's hard to ignore a sunburn on your feet though. If I walked around barefooted, I could probably manage, but I'm not sure that my coworkers would much appreciate it. So I'll just suffer through.

But really, you can't even wear loose socks or shoes to prevent too much contact with the sunburn. Every step you take, the top of your foot lifts up your shoe, pressing your sock more strongly against the burnt portion of your foot. Causing it to tingle rather uncomfortably.

Sure, sunburns are still livable. It might be a pain without a purpose, but at least I know it's pain due to my own stupidity. Even though I did use sunblock, I still should know better than to go outside. Every step I take I'll just be reminded why it's preferable to hide in front of a computer screen than it is to brave the big blue room. And so, inside I will stay, laughing at all the people I see walking by in the sunlight, amused, knowing that they're going to get home and be bright red, mad at themselves for forgetting to also refrain from going into the sun.

And then I see the plants, the trees, and realize that if we could manage to evolve past this, we'd have to spend all day in the sun. And I wonder. Will we be immune to sunburns before or after we begin to photosynthesize?

Or maybe life would be better if I just moved to the dark side of the moon.