Continuing with my 30 Days of Gratitude, I am thankful for having excellent vision and hearing.
Day #7 – You will pay the price for your lack of vision!
Our senses are how we experience the world, and very few people have ALL senses optimally tuned. Most of us have some senses that work well and others that don’t work as well.
My least developed sense is definitely smell (and taste). As a result I can spice the heck out of things without it bugging me. Bland food is not a concern with me 🙂
On the other end of the spectrum is my vision and hearing. Like most things, as a kid you really had no idea about how well your senses worked, and it wasn’t until years later that people were getting glasses and you would start reading signs or identifying cars or people from a distance that it became clear that not everyone was the same. That is when I discovered I could see and hear really well.
I am the only one in my house without glasses, and typically the first to hear when the washing machine finishes upstairs in the laundry room. From the very earliest days when Lisa and I were driving it was interesting to see how different our vision was looking for signs and so on. My vision meant I could spot things much earlier, and my hearing helped me pick out things going on in the distance or very quiet events.
And even now at 48 I still am not wearing glasses – though I know it won’t be forever. I can already tell that my up-close vision has slightly deteriorated over time, but not to the point where it causes me any concern yet. And the same is true with hearing – I took Chris to see Skrillex a couple of years ago in Syracuse and it was incredibly loud and my hearing was compromised for most of the next several days, making me appreciate it even more.
How is YOUR vision and hearing?
And because of reasons I am putting up FIVE ‘eyes’ songs today (yes, totally ignoring ears!)!
“For Your Eyes Only” – Sheena Easton
“Eye in the Sky” – The Alan Parsons Project
“In Your Eyes” – Peter Gabriel
“Eyes Without a Face” – Billy Idol
“Eye of the Tiger” – Survivor
Running Around the Bend 
I have very good vision (or at least I used to – I don’t think anything has changed), and I have had my hearing tested in years, but I think it’s good too… Maybe I should… Ha. 🙂
Glad to hear – and hope it remains that way 🙂
I am thankful for contacts and glasses. My vision is horrible. When I was first tested as a child they told me I was legally blind without glasses. They’ve changed the exact definition of that over the years but yeah with contacts I can barely see in front of me. I’m envious of your ability to see in the morning! 🙂
It is funny – that ‘first thing in the morning’ is something that didn’t occur to me until I started dating Lisa … I could always just see. So to have someone who can’t even think until they get their glasses on is different for me … well, it was 25 years ago 🙂
I have incredible hearing and I know I need glasses! I just have to go back to the doctor. It’s amazing how loud things make my ears ring afterwards-a couple weeks ago, I went to a concert and afterwards, our group wanted to go to a loud bar-after three hours of rocking-the loud bar really made me cringe!
I did leave that Skrillex concert wishing I had picked up some hearing protection at work 🙂 Definitely get your vision checked out – it is important especially for things like driving … something I think about a lot with a high school junior and senior! haha
When my mom was visiting, among other things, I asked her when she first had to get reading glasses. I told her I think it’s on the horizon for me because if I put a book right at the tip of my nose, I can’t read it. She was certain that no one ever could read that way and I insisted that in fact, up until recently, I could have (not that I would, but I am certain the letters used to be clear because I never understood how someone’s eyes could not see something really close).
That ‘very close’ vision is also what I feel is weakening for me … definitely is a common thing especially in the computer age 🙂
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