Nice people thread part 7 - a thread in its prime

misskool

it's the weekend!! i thought it would never get here

zagubov

wageslave wrote: »

As to music, I am tone deaf, everything sounds like an ice cream advert to me. It's the words that matter which has made me the unlikeliest rap fan on the planet.

I’m the reverse; if it doesn’t have a tune that would sound great if you hummed it, I’d barely recognise it as music. I liked some early hiphop and rap but now I can’t bear it.

lostinrates wrote: »

Not all people have a talent for music, but all can learn to appreciate beautiful sounds. Challenging our own tastes and developing our appreciation is a good thing, it doesn't diminish our favourites but can add to our appreciation of how they are part of a musical social history and how, for example, you can hear hints at the beginnings of 'today's' music in yesterday's and even glimses in the music of the day before yesterday.

I totally agree. I have relatives who have suffered hearing loss and would regard it almost a greater loss than blindness.

There's a lot of talk that the biggest issue in hearing loss is the breakdown in communication with other people but at least there's writing and lip-reading and signing. I think the communication issue’s reductionist and missing the biggest point of all, the real elephant in the room

Never hearing the voice of a loved one, the sound of birds, the babbling of a brook and the sheer beauty of music in its endless variety. Irreplaceable.

I remember seeing a documentary where a dad preparing for his profoundly deaf daughter's cochlear implant operation and having a version of a beautiful tune played to him electronically as it would sound to her. He put on a brave face but you could see him mourning her loss.

It’s a very precious but fragile sense and we’re all only one bad drug reaction away from experiencing it.

PasturesNew

zagubov wrote: »

I
I have relatives who have suffered hearing loss and would regard it as greater loss than blindness.

I'd choose to be deaf over being blind any time!

If you're deaf you can't hear, but you can still do everything for yourself.

Nikkster

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'd choose to be deaf over being blind any time!

If you're deaf you can't hear, but you can still do everything for yourself.

I think I would have to choose being deaf over blind too. I would so miss hearing, especially voices and music, but if not hearing loved ones voices would be horrible, I think not seeing their faces would be even worse.

On a different subject, I learnt today that apparently people in esp. Japan and France get the sweat glands in their armpits surgically removed :eek: Seems a bit OTT to me!

Generali

I read recently that the highest suicide rate of people that lose a sense is people that have lost their sense of smell. No idea if its true or not.

zagubov

zagubov wrote: »

I totally agree. I have relatives who have suffered hearing loss and would regard it ALMOST a greater loss than blindness.

There's a lot of talk that the biggest issue in hearing loss is the breakdown in communication with other people but at least there's writing and lip-reading and signing. I think the communication issue’s reductionist and missing the biggest point of all, the real elephant in the room

Worst bit of editing ever!When i was trying to tidy this up I erased the key word "almost".

I'm not sure I've ever met anyone who'd rate hearing as a more serious loss.

It wasn't so long ago though that deaf people were not so much supported and respected inn society but were almost more of a figure of fun than blind people, and subject to ridicule, in a way that would now rightly be regarded as shameful.:(

lostinrates

I was losing my sight earlier this summer and I was bloody petrified. I would miss hearing tremendously.....

I cannot say which I would miss more.

I could communicate with dh with out one or other, I cannot choose which would be least hard.

zagubov

Generali wrote: »

I read recently that the highest suicide rate of people that lose a sense is people that have lost their sense of smell. No idea if its true or not.

It's one of the first signs of Alzhemiers and one of the reason scratch-and-sniff cards are sometimes used as a test for the early signs.

Smell's a primordial sense and is meant to be one of the last ones to go as the senses fade with age. However, Alzheimers damage follows a particluar path around the brain that damages smell early on.

Years ago the UK spent £1500 for everyone who died of AIDS, £150 for everyone who died of CHD and just £11 for everyone who died of Alzheimers (4th commonest cause of death at that point). Utterly shameful!

Spirit_2

Generali wrote: »

I read recently that the highest suicide rate of people that lose a sense is people that have lost their sense of smell. No idea if its true or not.

Today my brother completed a course of radiotherapy for a head & neck cancer. Amongst other things, he has lost his sense of smell and taste.

Nikkster

Generali wrote: »

I read recently that the highest suicide rate of people that lose a sense is people that have lost their sense of smell. No idea if its true or not.

I think it is supposed to be the most 'emotive' sense - think how smells bring back memories. I guess it's also very closely related to taste too, and life would be very boring if you couldn't taste anything.