EDITOR'S NOTE: On Friday, James Warner-Smith of YES-FM took part in Deaf for a Day, an awareness event organized by the Sault Ste. Marie chapter of the Canadian Hearing Society.
The event required local celebrities to simulate deafness by putting plugs in their ears and then attempt to accomplish an otherwise-simple task in the community.
Warner-Smith, who's also well known to local aficionados of choral music, was sufficiently moved by the experience to put his observations in writing and send them to SooToday.com.
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Friday, I took part in the Canadian Hearing Society's "Deaf for a Day" program. Hearing is something that I pretty much took for granted until that event.
In thinking about that day, I was reminded of some of the things that I have come to understand about how people perceive the effectiveness of radio as an advertising medium.
Most people don't understand sound or "theatre-of-the-mind."
People don't really have even a basic comprehension of the power of the spoken word.
You can't touch it, you can't smell it. It has no form, colour, no movement.
That coupled with the fact that for most people, the fear of public speaking is greater than the fear of DEATH makes sound and speech something that most either avoid or simply take for granted.
At the office, I had my ears plugged and was sent into the community with a task, that being to go to The Garden Path and find out how much a dozen roses cost and if delivery was available.
One more thing, I was not allowed to speak or write anything down.
My assistant explained to Diane behind the counter what was up and I proceeded to try and get the information.
The blank that I drew was incredible.
What was, until then, a simple task became next to impossible because our ability to communicate with one another, at least for that moment, ground to a screeching halt.
A few days earlier I had allowed myself some time to daydream and revisit some of the "exquisite" moments in my life.
These are moments that I can only define as the things that make life worthwhile.
I ran through that list again before the event and was unnerved by the realization that many of those exquisite moments would never have been without my hearing.
I would never have uttered a word on radio, I would never have sung a note at St. Luke's, Central or Precious Blood, The Gardens, St. Paul's Cathedral ... nothing.
I would never have been moved by the music of Rachmaninov, Bacharach, George Strait or Andre Gagnon.
I never would have played "air-guitar" with my Peter Frampton record.
No hearing the love in my wife's voice, the happiness of my children, no birds singing on my back deck, no waves from the Gulf of St. Lawrence crashing against the shore at Bird Cove.
I would not have introduced hundreds of performers at recitals and performances.
I never would have heard Lyndon Slewidge utter a note, either here or on TV from the Corel Centre.
I never would have heard the roar of the engines as Roberta Bondar rocketed into space, the explosion from the sellout crowd as Terry Crisp's Greyhounds scored in overtime to win their 33rd home game in a perfect 1985 home season.
There would have been no listening to Gino Cavallo call the play on the radio (while I was at the Coachman celebrating a 90th birthday) when Ted Nolan's Greyhounds won the Memorial Cup in 1993.
The list continues for days through the soundtrack of my life, love, ecstasy and anguish, through a childhood of listening to the sound of my father's violin or pretending I was Jacques Plante or Dave Keon in winter or Rusty Staub in the summer at Central School.
I have been incredibly blessed in this life, as I believe we all have.
My memory of so much relies in great part on the sounds of my life.
My soul emptied when I put in the earplugs and came to the realization that so much of that would not have been without my hearing.
Take some time to appreciate the exquisite moments that hearing has brought your life.
Then visit the Canadian Hearing Society at 130 Queen Street East with a donation of time, talents or resources.
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