not all people want to hear
I love seeing stories like this, it brought a tear to me eye. But not everybody is so overwhelmed by being able to hear.
I once worked with a young man who was a deaf-mute. Really nice guy. While he was very aloof and had an air of superiority about
him, but he would do anything for you.
I actually trained him as a machinist which is really odd if you think about it, if you know anything about removing metal with a machine,
it requires a huge amount of force and energy. And the ability to hear is a huge asset, probably more than sight. Some of the computer
controlled milling machines I designed, programmed and operated, I would, could and did operate by sound alone. Under a flood coolant,
there was no way I could see if my machine ‘crashed’ but because I could hear (better than most, but not so much now, that is another
story . . .) I could tell when things went side-ways, could do without leaving my seat and would hit the E-stop on pure instinct.
But I digress . . . This young deaf-mute that I knew had no desire to regain his hearing. How do I know? Because I asked him. Not unlike
the blind man in the first chapter of Charles Frazier’s classic novel Cold Mountain wherein the blind man who never had his sight would still
not want it for fear of it turning him hateful, my friend was very happy with not being able to hear. I know at one point in time he could
hear but an accident or disease rendered him deaf and he and his wife had zero desire to re-enter the world of sound. I find that very
interesting and never asked him why. I would ask him if I met him again today.
I could not be happier for the people who do regain their hearing. But not all stories end so well. Waiting in my ‘ear doctors’ office at UCSF
(he is one the world’s leading experts in hearing loss and cochlear implants) was like being in the waiting room at the United Nations;
children and adults from all over the world waiting to see him. Some left his office in tears; tears of joy from regaining their hearing and others,
tears of sadness from the knowledge that nothing can be done, having reached the end of a long and winding road.