Summer New (Hiroshima) Moon
Today a large group of docents will give tours to an even larger group of kids from the Minnesota State Academy for the Blind. Should be an interesting time, fun. I’m using the Roman torso touch, verbal description of Doryphoros, rock garden of the scholar’s study touch, Bacchante and Satyr, the Kimbles, verbal description of St. Croix Gorge with the Cora, verbal description of Cream of Wheat posters, touch Stampede.
When I first lost hearing in my left ear, which happened suddenly over a period of six months when I was 39, I read a lot about deafness, not knowing whether the problem would over take my good right ear or not. The reading surprised me in that most disabled people said they would rather lose their sight than their hearing. Why? Because hearing is the relational sense, it’s how you make and retain human relationships.
Sight, of course, is important, too, but it doesn’t have the level of isolation from the rest of the world as deafness. Or so the reading I did suggested.
I can’t say. But, I can say this. When in a crowded, noisy room or near a source of noise like a waterfall or constant sound in that range, I tend to move toward the corners or leave. Again, why? In a quiet room I can hear well enough; you would not notice I’m deaf in one ear; but, in those situations I can’t understand human speech. When I try to, I have to make up what people have said, guessing from the bits that get through and the context. I am, I have discovered, often wrong.
