There are a lot of things we
all take for granted in our lives. One of them,
that is five of them, is our senses; sight, taste,
smell, touch, and hearing. I remember faintly
having a discussion about them back in my grade
school days. One of the nuns at Blessed Sacrament
School in Bridgeport, Connecticut thought it would
be a great idea to get us thinking about which one
we would miss the most if gone, and which one is
the most important. I guess the nuns had to get
their jollies somehow and tormenting 4th
and 5th graders with this kind of a
discussion was it.
I never raised my hand much
in those days. There are reasons for that, but
let’s just say that I had my own sense about not
just senses, but about the world around me. I
never participated much, except when I got to play
devil’s advocate, and even then it was minor. It
wasn’t that I didn’t know stuff, because I
did, at least sometimes I did. And one of the
things I did know was spending a couple of hours arguing over why taste
is more important than smell wasn’t worth the
effort. Without one the other is senseless.
Anyway, I have been thinking
about all my senses recently and they still work
in tandem most of the time. For example, seeing
the red and blue flashing lights of a police car
may be enough to get your heart racing and
perspiration glands thrown into overdrive as you
pull to the side of the road and begin to think up
excuses. But, without the wailing and whining
sound of the siren stunting you out of 6 years
growth causing you to look in the rear view mirror
to see the lights, the lights by themselves are
useless.
As much as I appreciate all
my senses and I wouldn’t want to give up any of
them, I have been particularly thankful for one of
them lately, and that is my sense of hearing
I think it is a fair
assumption to make that we all love fireworks. It
doesn’t really matter what the occasion is for
firing them off, the glorious illuminations
against the deep black sky is thrilling and
stunning all the time. As spectacular and
exhilarating as the light show is, without the
thunderous explosions accompanying them so much of
the thrilling experience is lost. Can you
imagine how humdrum a mammoth homerun in baseball
would be without the echoing crack of the bat that
launches it into the stratosphere and over the far
reaching stands? Boring!!
If you male readers out there
are half the man I am, I know you have had your
face slapped a time or two. Whatever the reason
for such action, do you think the message would
have been as effective if sense of touch turned
off the volume so you could only feel it and not
hear the blistering sound? Girls, would the hurt
on your hand have been worth it without having
heard that slap-silly sound?
Isn’t scarring someone so
much more fun when you combine the touching of
someone from behind with boisterous life-threatening
King Kong
growl?
Yes, there are a lot of
sounds I do appreciate. There are also just as
many I can do without, such as the jets buzzing
overhead early in the morning prior to my alarm
going off and I really don’t need to hear some
over zealous in-a-rush eighteen-wheeler scare the
begeezes out of me with a death-calling blast of
an air horn.
There is one sound I have
heard way too many times lately but I am so glad
that it is there. As I get older what little brain
cells I had are dying off in astonishing numbers.
It's a merciless massacre as I forget far too many things today and,
thus, I am so thankful for one sound in particular that saves me
from daily morning-madness-hissy-fits.
We have had a few days of rain recently and as
always I turn my lights on when I turn the windshield wipers on. I may
remember to turn the wipers off but I’ll be dammed if I can remember
to turn the lights off. The sound of the little ding, ding, ding
reminding me that my battery will become as much of a brain dead
ding-a-ling as I am is music to my ears, though, as in the days of Top
40 Radio, I am getting sick of the tune.
|
