October 26, 2010

• Thoughts on this morning’s thoughts

  Blindness may be survivable but I think that deafness is definitely out.  As I sit here working on a project with the mellow tones of a Paul Desmond tune playing in the background, the occasional sound of Layn playing with his toys, and my daughter talking to herself as she completes her mid-terms, I am quite certain that my ability to hear is as treasured as my ability to distinguish the difference between spring and fall soils. 

  I learned to listen, really listen from my dad.  My dad loves music.  From a very early age I can remember falling asleep to the sounds of The Modern Jazz Quartet, Miles Davis, Beethoven, Mendelsshon, and other greats.  When I was growing up we lived in a house where my bedroom was situated above the livingroom.  After my parents put us to bed they would sit in the livingroom and talk and my dad would invariably put some of his music on the stereo.  There was a vent in the floor of my bedroom that brought the heat up from the first floor and I would get out of bed and lay on the floor listening to his music until I fell asleep.  I sure surprised my dad by humming the second movement to Beethoven’s fifth at a very young age.

  Later when he taught me how to drive my dad honed my listening skills.  He helped me to almost become one with the vehicle that I was driving.  Even now I continually surprise my husband by telling him that there is something wrong with my car before he is aware of a symptom simply because “something doesn’t sound right”.  This morning MK, Layn and I went to the bank.  When we pulled into the drive-thru the man in the car ahead of us kept trying to get my attention.  You would have to be deaf not to hear the noise that my car was making.  I know that he meant well but I just wanted him to get done with his business so I could get done and go home.  The idler pulley that the serpentine belt passes by on my engine, the one that runs the fan, alternator, and other such necessary parts of the engine, has a bad bearing.  There is also a bad drive pulley in the same path.  I am waiting on parts for it.  Suffice it to say I heard that bearing going before anyone else believed that there was something wrong.

  Yep, deafness is not an option for me.  Not with the listening that I have been taught to do.  I have been taught to appreciate the range of the voice of Karen Carpenter, the smoke and sizzle of a hot clarinet when it is playing a good piece of jazz, and the sweet mellow tones of a muted trumpet when it is mourning the blues.  These ears were trained too well.

  • 3:53 pm
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