I have spent a lot of time outdoors, riding in the sun lately. As a result, I’ve transformed into a richer shade of brown on my exposed body parts. Each day when I shower, I’m always in awe of the darker shade of brown that I’ve become in comparison to the paler shade from which I started. Both colors are side by side in places so that the contrast is, at times, startling. The first time I significantly changed color was when I went to Jamaica with some sunscreen that I picked up with an SPF of 15 (I thought 15 was the highest – it was 1998 and I knew nothing). It was like taking a knife to a gunfight – too little. One day on the beach in Negril turned into six months of watching my darker skin gradually return to the same color as the unexposed places. I’m just glad I didn’t burn.