Friday Question #67
Which of your five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, feel) would you least want to give up?
Or maybe it would be more interesting if I asked which of your five senses would you give up if you had to?
For me, I cannot imagine living without sight. I see all of these amazing blind people navigating the streets of Chicago with their guide dogs, or their walking cane, and I feel inspired by them and their perseverance. But I also feel sad for them, because I can only imagine what a struggle being blind is. And I feel like I would miss out on so much if I couldn’t see – so many beautiful landscapes, so many beautiful works of art, even just seeing the beautiful faces and varieties of people (and I sometimes wonder, could there be a blind architect?).
If I had to give up a sense, I think I would choose smell. I would miss out on a lot of wonderful smells, and it would affect the way food tastes to me, but I would also miss out on a lot of nasty smells.
As I am writing this, I feel like it is going into a more serious discussion than I wanted it to. I am not trying to be rude or inconsiderate, just asking if you’ve ever thought about these things. I do think about it a lot, because the woman who sits next to me at work is legally blind and deaf. She has a lot of special tools she uses to get her work done, and I am amazed by her!
Themocracy
I would be devastated if I couldn’t hear or see but not smelling things? That might be okay. My father was blind and I saw how losing his sight diminished his own self-worth and how he struggled to feel useful in a seeing world. But there are many, many people who persevere and I admire them.
Interesting question!
I couldn’t live without sight either. I would probably give up hearing or taste. Can’t decide which is more important!
Smell without question. Then taste.
They offer enjoyment, but not as much function as the others. I’d have a hard time choosing between the other 3….
oh man, i actually think about this a LOT. sight seems like the obvious one not to lose, but without smell you can’t taste properly either, and i’m such a foodie…. and growing up a musician, losing my hearing seems equally devastating. GAH. i never can actually decide on this one. i go ’round and ’round for EVER.
I’d go for losing smell or taste altogether. I’d totally eat healthier… 😉
My daughter and I have been having a lot of discussions about Helen Keller lately, actually. (Due to an offensive song on the radio with her name in it.) I think I would literally go crazy without sight and sound, but maybe if you never had it at all you could be alright.
My mother has no depth perception, which I always found interesting. She cannot see 3D movies, or those fun spot-like pictures or anything. She thinks we’re all just making it up, and doesn’t “miss” it.
I’d probably lose smell first…I guess?? We had lots of patients with diarrhea at work today, and I totally could have done without my sense of smell!!!
Sorry if that’s TMI!!
I wear pretty strong contact lenses but I’m not willing to give up any of my senses. My husband has some hearing loss and until he got his hearing aids, it was really frustrating for both of us. Smell is a great sense — really strongly linked to memory — so I know I would miss it. I guess if I had no sense of taste, I could eat nothing but veggies and be really thin. But it would be boring.
For me, it’s a toss up between feel and smell. At least with feel, I could still see and hear and taste and smell.
Right there with you, definitely keep sight and give up smell first. Though I could almost see giving up taste first, since it’s not that useful without smell anyway.
If you ask a blind person many may say being deaf. But if you ask a deaf person many will come back and say sight. But if you ask a person without these two disabilities many would say neither. I would say it’s hard to actually walk in another person’s shoes per say.
As a person that is legally blind with no depth perception I could say that I see the landscapes much clearer then many with sight. Have you ever just closed your eyes and really listen to the landscape. Hear the birds a singing, the wind whistling through the trees, the crickets and the bull frogs giving the beat to the music. Nature music that is. My deaf friend listens to music in a whole different way with the vibration from the various sounds. So there is always music just a different way to look or listen to it. Same with sight.
Not sure if I would go with smell because smell alerts you to some dangers before actually getting close. It may be great not to have the smell when around restaurants so your body doesn’t decide to tell you it’s time to eat as I could loose some weight! Grins.
Sorry just couldn’t really pick as I already have multiple disabilities that I was dealt with. Although I am not dead and as the saying goes if you have lemons make lemonade. LOL.
Great question and great observation! I see blind people walking the streets of Chicago, often without a dog or other assistance – just a cane. They usually walk about the same pace as the rest of us and somehow manage to find their way around. I don’t know how they do it, but I’m always amazed; I could never do without my sight as they do. So much of our world is a visual one…
I don’t know any blind people or even legally-blind people. But I have had eye surgery, and sometimes think about how much I couldn’t stand blindness. One of my dreams of technological advance is that one day we will be able to create useful bionic eyes. In fact, it’s already been done – except, the best we can do in retinal-neuronal wiring is to permit the user to distinguish dark from light-colored areas.
Still, it’s nice to know that going naturally-blind no longer means being fully-unable to see again. 🙂
Hmmmm…
I think I’m with you on smell — that can go. (And Kyra has a great point.)
I think losing my ability to hear would be worse (but only slightly) for me than losing my sight. Music is more important to me than most else when it comes down to it.
However, I’d give up smell without a fight really…
Losing sight and sound would be awful. But touch might be the worst. I like to feel hugs and cuddle!
I laughed at this question, because one of the biggest arguments I have had with my sister in years was over this VERY question…which would you give up and I said sight, because I love food too much to sacrifice tastes or smells, and I like music too much to give up hearing.
She was APPALLED and thought smell for sure.
I”m totally with you on this one…
Smell would definately be it! It is the only one I can even start to think about not having…
That is amazing!
I agree with you. “Feel” would be a difficult one to give up, when you think about it, but I still think I would choose sight.
I was born blind, so I never had site. Don’t get me wrong, I’m always for good technological advances, but I would not ever consider having anything implanted or attached that would give me artificial vision. First of all, there’s the risk, (what if it just doesn’t work in the first place?) What if it malfunctions along the way? Second, there’s the research that having a sight restoration procedure, (after someone has been blind all their life,) is extremely confusing. the brain isn’t use to vision, and thus, can’t comprehend what it’s seeing. It’s a bit outdated, but here’s a link to the study: http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/soc/sightregained.htm