I didn't have a mother. It was a terrible way to grow up, with all of the other kids wanting to call me filthy names and couldn't, not knowing the warmth and comfort found within the circle of a mother's arms, and even today, Amos, your question hurts me, deep inside, somewhere around, oh, hereabouts, right next to my non-existent navel.

Have YOU ever been teased about your non-existent navel? I have. Some of the other kids decided the since I didn't have a navel I didn't exist at all and they wouldn't talk to me or play with me. I was always choosen last for games, because "No Navel" wouldn't be able to hold a bat or ball or run or do anything because he didn't exist.

Later, my high school counselors thought that it was simply a complete rejection of mother, but he couldn't accept the biologic alternative. Eventually he used his pyschological knowledge to obtain money from a bank under false pretenses and was jailed for bank freud.

I tried to enlist in the Marines, but was rejected because they are after all under the Sec. of the Navy and they didn't want anyone who didn't understand navel traditions.

I could continue recounting the many ways that a lack of a mother has affected me, but I'll stop.