A Cautionary Tale

I was prompted 100% by vanity.

The inconspicuous anomaly marred my reflection.

Because while  there was a little something-something a bit irregular in shape which itched and was located in an area on my chest that had been subject to repeated sunburn for the last 54 years, that growth had gone ignored.

No. I picked up the phone and made an appointment with the plastic surgeon because there was a teeny tiny perfectly round barely  visible but in the 20x makeup mirror itty bitty growth which  was preventing the smooth application of my under eye concealer. This teeny tiny perfectly round barely visible but in the 20x make up mirror mole had also become a mascara collector—and so, it had to go.

Thusly, the plastic  surgeon removed and did a biopsy on the something-something  thingy on my chest that I believed was at minimum a squamous cell carcinoma (or worse) and cut out the teeny tiny perfectly round barely visible but in the 20x makeup mirror growth located just under my bottom eyelashes.

The biopsy report concluded that the chest  thingy  I thought was positively something turned out to be positively nothing; and the vanity-prompted teeny tiny perfectly round barely visible in the 20x make up mirror nothing turned out to be positively something.

It's a cautionary tale.

Vanity is considered one of the 7 deadly sins---a form of self-idolatry—the root of the other 6. But what is also said is this: "Vanity well fed is benevolent."

Which in my case was absolutely true-- vanity was a good thing, even if the teeny tiny perfectly round barely visable but in the 20x makeup mirror mole was not.