BLINDINGLY SURE

If you had to lose one of your senses, which would one

would you  choose to give up

If you had to never again experience the scent of vanilla,

say,  would you give up your sense of smell

Or, how about, if you learned that you would never again

feel the downy hair on your grandson's head

Or his fat little hand pressed warmly in yours...

Your sense of touch is such an intimate part of you, yes?

Could you give up speaking? Your voice being mute 'til

the end of your days...

Conversely, could you stop having to listen, because

you'd given up hearing for good

Imagine - no music, no voices, no birdsong...living in a

world gone silent

Speaking and hearing are linked so if you're giving up one,

the other might well be gone also.

Much as I cannot imagine, never hearing Albinoni's Adagio

again, nor the first Robin announcing Spring, the geese

veeing and honking to announce Fall departing,

and winter's arrival

Nor can I feature a world of never touching silk, velvet,

a rose petal, or a thorn for that matter...all of those

sensations just gone...unfathomable

But the one sense I can't even conceive of living without

is my sight...

I know intellectually, I would learn to adapt to anything

I had to...it's just a fact of life...

But to lose one's eyesight, especially after being a sighted

person for almost seven decades...

Blind...even the word gives me chills...I don't know for sure

which sense I might choose to exist without

But I do know the one I fear most to lose; I am blinded by the

very idea...