Do you hear what I hear? (Some of us don’t.)
“Jamie.” Or “Mom.”
I hear that a lot. Sometimes, when the latter is uttered in a whiney, exasperated call from the other side of the house — I cringe.
My ears work pretty well. I hear birds madly chirping and the thunder rumbling over head. The refrigerator hums over my left shoulder as the kitten walks without sound into the kitchen.
I would have missed the birds, the thunder and the appliance vibration without my ability to hear.
Good writers don’t forget sound in their work.
I forget it all the time.
I tend to write one-dimensionally because I’m a one-dimensional person and I take my hearing for granted. As one-dimensional people are wont to do.
Me and my friend Annie heading up to Athens.
I’ve written about Annie a few times on the blog. I’ll give the Cliff Notes on posts re me and Annie.
Jesus, the garden, Jesus and the garden.
We were on our way to the Speech and Hearing Clinic at UGA for Annie to get her hearing aids serviced.
A recipient of the Lions Club Foundation hearing aid program, she was having problems hearing and so we made an appointment and headed up there. Backstory: She got the hearing aids three years ago, through the Lions Club and with the help at the good folks up at UGA. Periodically, they need service, etc.
This meant I got to spent a few hours with Annie. She makes construction delays on 441 enjoyable.
She was laughing at me taking this pic. You can’t see the horses on the other side of this pond. While stopped by the paving, and on way up to Athens we covered what was new in her life, the churches she’s been too, where her grandchildren are working. Let’s see. We touched on Jim Crow as I’m reading Isbabel Wilkerson’s amazing, The Warmth of Other Suns. Caitlyn Jenner. Ways to cook squash. Having diabetes and the problems that causes with pedicures.
Anywho.
Before long we were in Athens and where we needed to be.
I gave the business to the Red & Black like any self-respecting Gator fan.
I waited about 45 minutes pecking away on my lap top while Annie went back with the audiologist.
Annie came out after her checkup wiping away tears.
She always does this.
Praising God and saying how good it is to hear again.
They fixed a broken tube and cleaned the hearing aids.
One-dimensional, no-sound-writing me got to thinking.
First, the Lions Club International does a very, very good thing with this program.
And secondly, the ability to hear is easy to take for granted. When one-dimensional-writer me sees Annie crying for joy because she can hear again, well.
Even us one-dimensional writers write about it.
