December 6, 1996

N.O.H.A.R.M.M.
P.O. Box 460795
San Francisco, California 94146

To whom it may concern;

I saw your listing on the Internet and I thought you'd appreciate this incident that I and my nine year old son Josh had last week during our visit to the J.C.C. health club.

First, I need to say that even though I was circumcised during my bris at eight days, my son was not circumcised. My wife, also Jewish, was adamant that it be done, mostly for religion, hygiene and attractiveness. She relented after I persisted in my opposition to it (it was his body after all!). She discovered, to her surprise, how easy it was to care for an intact penis and eventually learned to overcome her blind acceptance of artificial aesthetics and to appreciate the natural beauty of God's perfect creation. We explained to Josh, at appropriate ages, how to care for himself, and that I - and some boys his age - don't have a foreskin because removing it was once thought to be necessary (like tonsillectomy), but now we know better.

Anyway, at the J.C.C. we ran into our neighbor and his eight year old son, David, in the showers. David, who is circumcised, looked at Josh's penis and asked with a nervous laugh, "Why do you have that piece of skin down there?" Josh paused for a moment and with a quick shrug of his shoulders quipped, "Just lucky I guess!"

Josh's response made me proud that we were able to instill confidence in his sense of body image and self-esteem. During the ride home Josh said he understood how circumcision could happen "waaay back then when you were born Dad" (I'm only 32!), but that he felt sorry for David.

I guess as circumcision becomes more obsolete there will be a lot more "Davids" out there asking questions.

Sincerely,

Michael L.

[last name and address held in confidence]