Things we do well

You probably do at least one thing really well. Perhaps you’re competent at many things, but you do one or two things really well. You can cook, you always place in your age group in road races, and you can play the piano. But you could sing from the day you were born. You didn’t need much training, you were just gifted. But on the flip side you were left with certain gapping deficiencies. Embarrasing ones. You have no sense of direction – even in your home town. You cannot remember other people’s names, no matter how hard you try; no matter that they always remember yours.

Every day here I confront my gaping hole – I have poor hearing. In fact, I‘ve always known I lack an ear. In fact, in college, I was kicked out of beginning voice class (yes, beginning – as in “perhaps-you’ve-never-uttered-a-singing-noise-then-this-class-is-for-you” beginning). The professor told me that I probably do many things well – but singing just isn’t one of them. I had no ear – it all sounds the same to me (luckily by all sounding the same, most music sounds really good to me). Turns out that that carries over into language. I have no ear for Creole. And it’s starting to get frustrating.

Imagine you’re sitting at your desk at work and someone comes up to you to talk. They begin talking and itnsead of hearing “Hey, Joan, did you get that memo I sent?” all you here is “nanananblahblahblah blah, oui?” So you ask them to repeat it, but slower. And again. And instead of saying things any slower they just say it louder and louder, which of course just helps a tremendous amount. Finally you can’t take it anymore. You yell out a four-letter explicative. A bad one. The lady walks off.

At least I have a very good memory.