Nearly everyday I speak with someone whoﾠclearly suffers from the affects of hearing loss. And I never fail to be amazed at the lengths some people go to avoid accepting that their hearing is less than perfect.

And this is even before I discuss the subject of hearing aids for them!

And this has made me think that perhaps it would help someone come to terms with their hearing loss, if hearing loss hurt. Dramatic I know but if the body hurt every time a syllable was missed or if there was a twinge whenever a hair cell in the ear was damaged, perhaps we would accept this change more readily?

This is not to say I want people to sufferﾠphysically but I justﾠthink we would have a better understanding of justﾠhow often hearing loss interferes in our life, if we wereﾠnotified we had just missed something.ﾠ

We never think about how many muscles we have, or how regularly we use them, until we strain ourselves. If you've ever bruised a rib or strained a muscle in your back or chest you'll know how uncomfortable it can be to breathe.

Unfortunately, as hearing impaired people go through the day there is no shooting pain, ache or twinge.ﾠ As time marches on, our mind gradually forgets the sound of gravel under our feet, the cars' indicator or the sound of birdsong.

Peopleﾠdon't stop to clarify the words they don't know weren't understood.ﾠ Too often we adjust to the new softer sounding world, wishing people would take the 'marbles out of their mouth' and speak clearer.ﾠ

Fortunately hearing loss doesn't hurt, but I often wonder how easy it would be to live in denial if it did?