If You Had to Choose

Call me crazy, but I'm always thinking about random subjects like:

"If you had to lose a sense, which one would it be?"

I knew a girl who fell off a motorcycle and bonked her head on a rock. Next thing she knew, she couldn't smell a thing. She couldn't smell anything ever again. Turns out, she damaged the part of her brain that held her sense of smell.

Actually, I was friends with her younger sister who told me about her plight. At that time, I thought it was a good thing she couldn't smell because her much-older boyfriend was a bit on the "sour" side, if you get my drift. I mean--and I don't want to gross you out or anything--but heck, you don't want to get stuck in the back seat with the two them them on a long trip.

I wonder how she is doing today and if she ever broke up with him. I remember drilling her about stuff at dinnertime in the kitchen when I was a guest in her mom's house. I always wondered how she tasted things, or if they didn't taste at all, what with her sense of smell gone and all.

Call me crazy. Or call me clueless, but I'm pretty forward about this stuff because I was practically blind for a time, myself. I have no problems answering questions about that stuff. And I asked a deaf girlfriend a lot of questions about her situation, too.

Come to think of it, I don't know the point of this post.

Just sayin.

Anyways, thing is, if you had to lose a sense, which one would it be? Would it be sight? And if it were, how would you remember the colors? Even during my worst, I could still sense colors. I couldn't see them clearly or read a ball band or maybe see the difference between a taco and a burrito, but at least I could tell bright red from bright white.

Or would it be your hearing? I love music. But I've known people who don't hear and they still feel the vibes. But, they can't hear the laughter of their children or the punchline to a funny joke.

Or would it be your sense of smell? I think the sense of smell is underrated. I joked about the gal who got hit on the head and whose sense of smell got stolen, but I tell you what: her choice of boyfriend's was surely affected. Not to mention all the rotten food she's eaten and not known about it until it was too late.

So, there's hearing, seeing, smelling, feeling, tasting, ...what else is there? Isn't there some other news about pressure or other sensations?

And I'm wondering if I could knit without my sight. My grandmother has lost most of her sight from macular degeneration. And I didn't have mine for a time--when I was about seven--and at this moment I am blind in one eye (which results in some bruises on my right side every now and then and the inability to paint a three-dimensional picture or catch a fast moving ball).

In fact, I just talked to grandma--my mom's mom--not too long ago, and we discussed knitting. She taught me to knit when I was eight and I told her how much I was enjoying it.

"Oh, I can't knit anymore," she said. "I can't even read...even the big-print books. But if I could chose anything, I suppose I'd knit again."

(And she used to knit with the cheapy-do yarn. Even the cheapy-do yarn will make you pine for the needles. Oh grandma. I wish upon all wishes that you could see well enough to knit again...)

Comments

[Marcia]

Maybe our labs can form a band. We'll call 'em Ray Charles Wonders and Takes Paws.

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2684/196/320/cheesywonder.1.jpg

If I had to, I'd choose sense of smell to lose.

[AlisonH]

Lost most of my hearing in my teens. So much for preparing to be a professional musician. It's been a wonderful/awful thing: I learned to "hear" emotions in others like other people hear words--all the nonverbal cues, I'm there. I've been grateful for the lessons it has offered. (So now can I have my hearing back? Please?)

As for your blind grandma, insist, cast on for her, put the needles in her hands, and just watch how happy she'll be in an instant. The muscles remember.

[Kitty]

Hi Alison H - google Evelyn Glennie - she is a professional percussionist - and deaf.
My son lip reads the punch lines to jokes. He said he's very grateful that he's deaf and not blind.

[Nanc]

Wow, that's a tough question to ask and it feels kind of like I'll be jinxing myself when I answer, but here goes... If I had to lose one of my senses, it would be sight.
But what about the knitting, you may query? Well, just this past week I finally met many of my hubby's aunts and uncles (after 5 years of marriage - they don't get together very often). Well, Aunt Sherry is blind. Has been since the age of 3. And? Well she knits. She knits wonderful, beautiful items, and her stitches are so even! The best part? (Besides having a friend to talk knitting, yarn, and patterns with while with all the in-laws?) She knit up a wall-hanging/placemat item for a nephew that has his name in braille on it. She knit bobbles to represent the braille letters! Awesome, no?

So, she's my current inspiration. She has software that will translate patterns so that she can understand them, but charts don't work for her. It was all eye-opening, pun intended.

[Emily]

The thought of not being able to knit is pretty terrifying, but I recently taught a blind friend to knit. So far she's just doing a garter stitch scarf, but everyone starts out that way, so I'm sure she will progress too.