I reached a point where I went to Costco to be fitted with hearing aids. It was getting difficult to understand Renata, the little boys, Jed and Sam. The chart showed the areas where my hearing had declined, and this time I left the hearing test with hearing aids slung over my ears.
The change was immediate – Renata immediately quit mumbling and began speaking clearly. The grandsons voices became more distinct. The car radio became intelligible, rather than just a rhythm – I found that I could even understand talk radio – something lost with Limbaugh.
Yet increasing deafness has not been problematic in most ways. It’s a problem when I can’t hear well enough to understand people I want to hear – but there are more than a few conversations that are really no loss. The silence isn’t much of a problem – though it was a bit disconcerting to spot a small black bear standing back watching me work the sawmill. I’ve seen him first several times, and recognized that he spent a lot of time harvesting ants from old stumps. I’m fairly sure that he watched me working the mill hoping to find another way of harvesting insects and grubs from stumps and trees. As hearing declines, the world becomes quieter, calmer. The bass notes continue the melodies, but the small birds become silent birds. Women, with higher pitched voices, become harder to hear. Email and text messages replace the telephone – and folks who want to use the phone to talk business gradually quit calling.
The silence of deafness is a rather pleasant interruption of the cacophony that interrupts thoughts and writing – the inconvenience is when you have to shut everything down to be able to get part of the words from someone close to you.
So I’m using hearing aids. They stress the sounds of human voice, and minimize the background noise. And at night, when I take them from my ears and put them back in the charging case, I can return to the quiet world where reading gets no interruption. It’s a good time to grow old – the technology makes up for a lot of the abilities I have lost getting to this age.
Leave a Reply