Sense This

I want to be working on a series of diary entries for my comic characters as a way to flesh out their back stories but I can't stop thinking about the water in my head. My ears have filled up with fluid and my left ear is infected. All sounds are muted and I can hear my own heartbeat in my inner ear. I also can hear the ocean.

My thoughts are constantly distracted to how hard it would be to be deaf. I would no longer hear the sweet sounds of Tori and I could no longer make those sounds myself. At least I could hug a speaker and feel the awesome vibrations of Tool. I'd have a hard time communicating with people outside of the written word. I then stray to how it just might be worse to be blind. I could no longer look at the sometimes gorgeous, sometimes gruesome art of comics. I could no longer write without dictating to someone. I'd have to learn Braille to read and have movies described to me. Both would be difficult to deal with but I already know my alphabet in ASL. And I know how to say fast dirty lesbian, so I'm off to a good start.

It is possible that I will struggle with my sense of smell. My Dad has a deviated septum resulting in several surgeries and a complete loss of smell for 5 years. He did regain the ability to smell strong smells after one of his co-workers moved on to another job. She bathed daily in strong perfume. At least he was lucky to not have to smell that but he could hardly taste food while he worked with her.

If I break my nose I will end up with similar problems. My septum is already curved enough that I often have sinus headaches. I already have a weakened sense of smell but I'm hoping that it's just the after effects of being a smoker and hanging around in constant smoke. I haven't smoked in almost two years and new laws allow us to sit in a bar without our eyes burning. My friend, Tammy said she didn't get her full senses of taste and smell back until three years after quitting smoking. So there's still hope for me. I just have to be sure to not piss anyone off enough to get popped in the nose.

Losing my sense of smell would sadden me. Not only would the enjoyment of food be minimized but smell is our strongest link to memory. The faintest smell can trigger a rush of memories long forgotten. Go and smell some Play-doh, a Cabbage Patch Kid or the Purple Pie Man. Tribe perfume reminds me of a friend from grade 8, CK One reminds me of high school. I love the smell of books and vinegar. I can even inhale the sweet smell of chocolate to curb the craving to devour it in mounds.

My grade 11 science teacher once told us a story about the senses and LSD. He told the story as if he were recounting a friend's experience but it was obviously his trip. The lesson was about synapses in the brain and he got to talking about LSD's tendency to re-route synapses to create hallucinations. He had been wondering around town, tripping out when he was sprayed by a skunk. He was unaware that he had even been sprayed but he was aware of the red cloud that surrounded him and followed him everywhere. It wasn't until he arrived at a party and was told that he'd been sprayed before he realized the source of the mysterious cloud.

I later went to that class on LSD. We had a test that day. My teacher obviously knew what I was up to since he moved me to the front of the class to write my test in front of the skeleton that lurks in all high school science labs. The white brick wall breathed rapidly behind the skeleton as he smiled and twitched to my horror/amusement. At one point my teacher leaned right over and looked up into my face with a giant smile to ask me how I was doing. Yah, he knew but I don't think he minded. I got 19% on that test. I would've gotten about the same sober since he was a terrible teacher. (The next year I had awesome science teachers and excelled in Chem and Bio.) I didn't make it to any of my other classes that day and I never went to school on acid again (well I did once more but I took it my class after lunch so it didn't kick in until my spare - but that's a whole other story).

For an amusing and somewhat gross take on the sense of smell, watch Elijah Wood's class presentation in The Ice Storm. Charles.