By Trent Rosser
A while back, I briefly spoke of my grandmother having hearing aids. As kids we tortured her with them. She had them attached to her glasses so if we said something she would say “Hold on, I have to put on my eyes to hear you!” Then we would mouth the words to what we were saying and she would say, “Hold on, I have to turn them up.” This kept up until we could hear the ringing of the hearing aid and then we would yell at her at the top of our lungs. She would then say, “Hold on, I have to turn them down now.” This would go on for about 20 minutes before she would get upset and walk away. I remember when my mother and my aunts sat down and talked with my grandmother about hearing aids. They all sat at the table and finally someone said to her “Mother, have you thought about getting a hearing aid?” My small 4'10" Comanche Indian native grandmother became red in the face. She jumped up and yelled, “I DON’T NEED NO DAMN MAID!” It wasn’t long after that when she started wearing the hearing aids. Now, karma is coming back to me.
My hearing is still just fine, just everyone is now starting to mumble! One thing that I do not understand; when someone says "What". There is no need to yell what you said. Just repeat it a little louder than before. No need to have everyone in the restaurant turn their heads because you yelled out what you previously said! That is just embarrassing to yourself and the person that could not hear you. Plus, no one likes it when you are yelling at them. Something that everyone is not understanding is that background noise can hinder the hearing. So, when the air conditioner is going full blast, the t.v. is blaring and someone whispers from 3 rooms over, how do you expect them to hear you.
There is also something else to consider. A disease that affects the hearing of many people. There is no known cure and it happens at once. There are no symptoms to this disease and no warning. This is a progressive disease that is usually dominant in men, but some women can also be a helpless victim. It is called Discriminatory Auditory Impairment. Mostly known as Selective Hearing. My wife believes that I have this disease. In fact, she thinks that I have had this for quite some time. She says that I don’t listen to what she is saying, but I am listening. She is mumbling, and I am trying to figure out what she is saying. Just like hearing loss, selective hearing is when you only hear certain words. As with most men, our brains are full of words so when we only hear a certain couple of words, we try to fill in what we didn’t hear. For instance, our grandson came over the other day and destroyed the house. Which is normal for a 3-year-old. After he left, my wife looked at me and said, “Levi can be a rain in the beer.” So naturally I look at her with a puzzled look and say, “What” I heard her just fine, but I needed clarity for what she just said. Really, rain, beer? What the hell is she talking about. Then she states that I don’t listen. The T.V. is blaring, the air conditioner is running and 2 fans going. I just am confused about what she said. Finally, she repeated it. “Levi can be a pain in the rear!”
The other day, I misunderstood my boss. It could have ended up in disaster, but thankfully it didn’t. He told me to go to a store and pick up some material. He then gave me a credit card and said go to a different place and use the card to pick up different material. He said, “just use the card at the second place” what I heard was “just use the card.” At the first stop, I used the card to purchase $2800.00 worth of material. All charged to his credit card. What I didn’t know, was that we have an account with them. What should have showed up on his credit card statement was about $150.00, instead it was nearly $3000.00. Yep, he was not happy! While at work, we have compressors, generators and lots of heavy machinery running. I am constantly saying to my coworkers “What”. I wouldn’t have to ask if they would just quit mumbling and whispering.
Maybe it is me? Maybe I am losing my hearing. Maybe I do need to go get my hearing checked. Maybe, if I do end up getting hearing aids, then I will have more work to do. I will never be able to use the excuse, “Sorry, I didn’t hear you ask me to fix anything.” Or “Sorry, I didn’t hear you say that you needed help with the dishes.” Yes, I believe that karma is coming back for me for all the trouble I caused my grandmother and her hearing aids. Like my wife said, “Karma is back with a vengeance.” I of course looked at her right in the eye and said, “Karma is buying a sandwich?”
