Helen Keller said: Blindness separates us from things but deafness separates us from people (and she would have known!).
I've been reflecting on hearing. There have been a couple of reasons. Firstly, I believe that the loss of hearing has been a major factor in the ageing of my grandmother. It has meant that she finds it much more difficult to engage with people. She misses big parts of conversations and it takes a lot of energy to understand what everyone is saying. Thinking back, it was a major issue for my mother-in-law as well. Losing your hearing narrows your world.
The second thing is the terrible statistics about the hearing of young Indigenous children living in remote Australia. Due to poor diet and overcrowding they are much more likely to develop hearing loss in childhood. It has a tremendous impact on their lives, starting with behaviour at home (hard to listen to mum or dad telling you off if you can't hear them), ability to learn at school (especially if English is a second language) and interactions with people (there has been some research about the number of domestic violence incidences that were caused by one or both parties being unable to hear properly and it is frightening. In addition, 90% of Indigenous inmates in Darwin have significant hearing loss).
I am so grateful that I don't have any hearing issues at this stage of my life. I won't take it for granted, and I will try to ensure that the children don't listen to their music too loud!
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