Listening

The view from my front porch these days is of a field of dandelions. Prolific at this time of year, I‘m a champion of them; they are a natural elixir and symbol of spring revival. Their timing is as predictable as maple syrup. They have been revered as natural medicine as early as 659AD in Chinese medical texts. Understood also is how their perseverance makes them unwelcome to some in modern times.

I also see the squirrels and hear the honeybees as they track their paths by way of colour patterns. The shrill of the robin’s call, the song of the cardinal; faraway a chainsaw fires up while nearby, I hear the chatter of Slab Creek. Spring rains have made it swell. And so I sit and focus on sounds that I have been missing.

The flicking of face masks on and off during the pandemic resulted in me losing my hearing aids one at a time and at months apart. It was easier to have happen than I could have imagined. Since then, I struggled to hear with a sole remaining one from an older pair. As anyone with hearing impairment knows, the things are not exactly sold at bargain rates. Also interesting is that wherever you check, there are no variations in cost. Costs are consistent. But with help of a friend and also a grant, I was able to return to the family-run hearing business that has been my go-to practitioners in order to get re-tested and order a new pair of devices. And so here I am, reunited with a banquet of sounds that also went missing along with my lost hearing aids.

I mention all of this because in many cases it is not only cost that inhibits some people to deal with hearing loss, it is a perceived stigma associated with the inability to hear. We may as well get over it as my reading of an aging population tells me everything associated with senses such as hearing and sight is a focus of invention and marketing fuelled by rising demand. Think about how a pair of eyeglasses was once simply that—an apparatus to support vision. Now they are ‘eyewear’ touted in fashion scoops everywhere. We all want to look good right so I suggest we buckle in: Earwear fashion is just around the corner. You can say you learned about it first, here in the Times.

It’s maybe why I wanted to get ahead of the foreseeable trend when I inquired about ordering hearing aids in a shade of red or orange; not only to make it obvious that I wore them in case I misunderstood something in conversation, but on the practical side it was to help me find the damn things when I set them down someplace: I haven’t mentioned that my eyewear is also booked for upgrade.

Hearing impairment is a serious thing as it cuts off clear communication and can lead to frustration followed by isolation and mental health issues, let alone physical balance and challenges to concentrating and thinking. All of this I have learned through ‘ears on’ experience over recent time but now, as the ad says, I’m back and also adjusting to the flush of the toilet sounding like Niagara Falls and asking the birds to tone it down at 5 a.m. And would you believe that I can even hear the dandelions and grass grow? Now that’s what I call hearing!