Missing

The Greek word for “return” is nostos.  Algos means “suffering.”  So nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return.
— from Ignorance, by Milan Kundera

We’re coming up on the tenth anniversary of my hearing loss at the end of this month, and I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how my life has changed as a result.  I expect a series of posts on the topic over the next couple of weeks.

Things I miss:

falling asleep to the sound of the rain on the roof

the sound of my arms sluicing through the water when I swim

listening to the radio on a long night car trip, hearing it slowly start to fade out as you head out of range

being able to tell whether a baby is laughing or crying just from the noise (without seeing the baby)

audiobooks

watching TV while doing anything else at the same time (needing captions means I have to be looking at the TV to follow what’s going on)

hearing and differentiating between many different languages while walking in a diverse area

listening to ball games on the radio

talking on the phone for hours

eavesdropping – not in any nefarious way, but just on the Metro or walking down the street

easily understanding children, who never want to look you in the face when they talk, and who do some of their best talking from the backseat