got a problem?

An excerpt from “Bunny and I”

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Copyright © 2007, Michael M Wayman

Once you realise that you have a problem, you just have to define what it is and suddenly you have lots of solutions. Suppose you have three legs. Your problem is not “I have three legs.” No, your problem is “I have an extra leg” or better still “I am unhappy because I have the wrong number of legs.” Then you think of the solutions.

The first that often comes to mind, especially for males, is the technical solution; unfortunately it is often expensive or too expensive or not even possible, but it can be very effective.

The technical solution here would be to have an operation to remove one of your legs, effective but expensive, even if your health insurance pays, the time and the pain and the agony are at your cost. It obviously doesn't work if most people have four legs, you probably can't grow another leg. Bunny says that you could use an extra wooden leg though.

You could ignore your extra leg – maybe it will fall off one day. This solution is very cheap but not too effective. You could tie two of your legs together and stick them in the same trouser leg. This is a masking solution.

You could try the opposite: paint the extra leg red, white and blue; tie ribbons round it and persuade everybody that having an extra leg is a fun thing to do, the latest fashion. You could just learn to live with an extra leg.

There are all sorts of solutions, but each has its cost and effectiveness.