X, this is a footnote.
My father, long since passed, lost a leg in WWI. As I understand it, up to the time he met my mother, he was a jolly-do-well buddy of a group of contemporaries. The missing leg was openly given the quality of allowing him to drink more, to other things I cannot specifically recall.
But, the wooden leg was 'on the table.'
When he met my mother, he was persuaded that the absence of a leg was a detriment, a shame, a shortcoming, an indication of being crippled.
Now, this is why I add this footnote, is it better to allow the fact of a wooden leg be a fact, or is it preferable to deny the thing? Don't we all, in one way or the other, have a wooden leg?
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