January 29 - I Can Hear You Smile

Did you know that when you speak to me I can hear whether or not you are smiling? I might not be able to see your face or the laugh lines at the corners of your eyes, but I can tell from the inflexion of your voice if you are smiling and happy when you are talking with me. It’s actually quite easy. If you are blind, you will know this truth already. If you are sighted, I invite you to try this out by simply closing your eyes and listening. You might even try to hear different emotions in someone’s voice just by listening.

I don’t think that my sense of hearing dramatically improved when my sense of sight decreased.  Instead, I think that I might have learned to listen more attentively. I think that this often happens when someone can’t see. We learn to rely on other senses and so we learn to develop them more fully.

There are common myths surrounding sight and hearing. While there is sometimes the mistaken belief that hearing increases in direct proportion to the loss of sight, at the other end of the spectrum, there is an erroneous belief that loss of sight also means loss of hearing and intellect. Neither is necessarily so. There is no need to speak more slowly or to raise one’s voice when speaking with someone who cannot see.

I wish that I could also communicate my smile with the printed word or computer generated voice on this blog.  I am smiling as I am writing this. Today is a beautiful winter day with the beginning of some warmth from the sun after the dead of winter. I am happy and I am smiling. Can you hear me when I smile?