Blind or deaf?
Someone recently asked me, if I had to be one, would I rather be blind or deaf?
I’m still struggling with the answer.
Without sight, how could I write? How long would it be before I forgot how the sun glows on the windows of the house opposite at sunset, what beauty looks like, what it was like to be afraid of someone because of the expression on their face.
And straight away photography would be lost to me.
Without hearing, how long before I forgot the rhythm of conversation? The sound of veiled anger, waves crashing at the shore, the wind whistling through the trees?
And music, the subject of my first (and still unpublished) novel, would be lost on me.
I decided I’d rather be deaf because I could still write, and see, and take photographs. But deafness is so isolating, so in the end I decided not to decide.
What do you think? Would you rather be deaf or blind, and why?
Deafness over blindness for two reasons:
1) I recall events and people via images, much more than a conversation or background noise. When their words do replay in my head, the tongue is usually mine, not theirs.
2) It’s possible to get proficient at reading lips, provided one can see.
Interesting, Sam. I have quite a visual memory too, but conversations, tones of voice and accents do stick in my head. I have to see ideas though. I hadn’t thought about lip reading. But what about music: would you miss that?
I want to look at those trees but also hear the music of the leaves rustling and the birdsong from within.
Debra, I would always miss the sound of a distinctive voice and a good song, but if one sense failed, I’d still rather see how people are acting in my presence than hear them. People convey a tremendous amount of inflection through body language.
Music has its own inflections, too: vibrations as the sound passes through the speaker cones.