Person: This is like being in Mexico in the 1820s.
Z (laughs): Perhaps it is really about 1830 (if this is Mexico). There has been a post-Independence civil struggle. Only the winning leaders were not killed. Of the peons and civilians, I am the only one left standing, although I am wounded. All the other peons and civilians now existing are immigrants who answered the call for new population that was issued after the war. I am a political problem because I have the wound, which is an impairment, and because I remember.
That is literally true and it is a specific case in which I am well aware of being a casualty. Wounded, but hoping not to be permanently maimed (the spectre of which makes me loath to admit even being a casualty). What bothers me about the word is the possible implication of unredeemable damage. What I like about it is that it names the situation. I want to come back from it.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 