Sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste: which one would you live without?

[vitauta]

if you had to give up one of your senses in order to continue living, which one would you choose to give up? we've all pondered this question since we were kids - i know i did, and i think i chose "smell" or "touch" at various times, considering those to be my lesser senses. today, however, i think i would say sight....which is your very favorite sense(s) and why?

 

[Alix]

I'd give up smell. I could live without that. I don't know which is my favorite of the others though. Its a toss up between sight and hearing.

 

[vitauta]

i would choose smell before sight too, if it weren't for taste being dependent on smell, or so i thought...is it?

 

[Zhizara]

Hearing. I have sensitive hearing and so many sounds drive me up a wall.

 

[Alix]

Nope. They complement one another but are not dependent upon one another.

 

[buckytom]

my answer can be explained in an irish joke.

an old irish couple were arguing loudly while driving along the coast road home from derry.

after a sharp bend in a particarly rough stretch of road, a policeman pulled over their car.

the garda walked up to the car and tapped on the driver's window. "jesus mary and joseph, man. didn't you notice your wife fell out of the car".

"oh thank god, officer. i thought my hearing had gone..."

 

[Andy M.]

I've been living with intermittent loss of my sense of smell for some time now and it's not the end of the world.

 

[CWS4322]

The sense of smell is one of the strongest "sense" memories we have. Close your eyes, think of the smell of autumn...the smell of the dirt road to the cabin...I can close my eyes and smell Chanel 5 when I think of my grandmother. I can taste it in my mouth...I lost my sense of smell when I was in a car accident and broke my nose. The irony is that it came back 10-fold. I can smell things other people can't. (We were out walking in the back 40 not long ago--I said, "someone's grilling burgers." My DH looked at me and said, "oh, super nose, 10 miles away someone's having a cookout and you smell it." We laughed, but when we drove into the village later, there was a charity BBQ in the village (not 10 miles, only 8 miles away). I could still smell it in the air 2 days later when I went back into the village. I have very strong scent memories and a very sensitive nose. (I thought everyone's nose worked like mine--guess not.
)

Most of my scent memories/recognitions are good, but some are awful. I hate the smell of bananas--but then, when the nerves were damaged after I broke my nose, everything smelt of bananas. I hate the smell of vodka--it makes me gag, but supposedly vodka doesn't smell (it does to me).

I'd probably give up my sense of hearing before I'd give up my sense of touch or sight. It would be hard for me to make a living if I could not see--it would also be hard for me to be me if I could not "touch." I'd hate to not be able to feel my DH's skin, or his hair, when I touch him. Or the softness of the fur of my dogs...But I could manage without my sense of hearing--my dad does. My Missy dog did. I wouldn't like it--but given that I spend so much of my time in silence working in my head, being able to hear is not the sense on which I rely the most.

 

[vitauta]

you are so right about the sense of smell being a powerful carrier of memories, persons, places, moods, etc. patchouli always brings me back to 1970s, black light posters, crosby stills nash, and harman kardon speakers. honeysuckle is evocative of my aunt's cottage in maryland, and white shoe polish is her too. crayola crayons and cilantro bouquets are my babygirl. hot liquid tar always reminds me of this new jersey bakery in the summer-exquisite pastries! my mom is pond's cold cream, my first boyfriend, butterscotch and bicycle metal....but music makes the sense of sound an absolute deal breaker too! what's that leave, sense of touch, maybe?

 

[CWS4322]

Oh--but if you couldn't feel the way bread dough is when you knead it and it will be perfect--or the touch of child's face...or, the touch of my mother's cheek when I kissed her good-bye in April...or the sensation of the lake water trickling through my fingers as I drag my fingers along side the boat...could I live without that? If I hadn't been borne with being able to hear my mother's voice...then yes, I could live without that, but to give it up now? I'd rather hold onto the touch of my mother's hand against mine than her voice in my ear...(especially the sound of her voice yelling at me to come in at dark...). It is a tough one, but there are so many gadgets to help one hear--there are very few, if any, to help one remember the sensation of touch or smell.

And look at all the memories the thought of smell evoked for you--pond's cold cream...another one...Lilacs at the end of my grandma's driveway when we visited in May...gas plant...and the smell of chickens. The burning peat bogs in the fall when my parents drove through the dark to my grandparents. I love the smell of burning peat bogs...

People don't have nearly the sensitive sense of smell that dogs do--the first time I took my first rescue lab to Lake of the Woods, she was beside herself 30 miles from the Lake. My brother and I had to drag her out of the Lake at the end of the day--and she was so exhausted. We had to lock her in the cabin to keep her from going in the Lake. Every year thereafter, whenever we were within "smelling distance" of the Lake, she went wild, even in her crate. I flew her in to Winnipeg with me one year when my parents lived on the CDN side of the Lake. We were 2 hours from "home" and she was beside herself. I know she smelt the Lake. I did, but not until we were about 30 miles out. When I let her out of the crate at my folks, she bolted down the driveway to the dock and DOVE in the water.

 

[vitauta]

cws4332, your writing is so descriptive and lyrical. you should seriously look at some form of professional form of writing - you'd be a natural.

 

[jabbur]

I'd give up hearing. I already know sign language and am familiar with Deaf culture. I would miss music but I want to be able to read, "smell the roses", "taste life" and feel the touch of a friend or family member.

 

[CWS4322]

cws4332, your writing is so descriptive and lyrical. you should seriously look at some form of professional form of writing - you'd be a natural.

Ha-ha--that is what I do for a living. Thank you. Or did you mean it sarcastically?

 

[vitauta]

Ha-ha--that is what I do for a living. Thank you. Or did you mean it sarcastically?

dead serious. you have a gift for rich, expressive writing that is quite remarkable. i enjoy reading your thought provoking observations and colorfully depicted scenes. what do you write for a living?

 

[CWS4322]

All kinds of stuff-articles, short stories, ghost writing, and technical documentation. From the time I was 3 years old, I wanted to play with words. I can't think of a better way to make a living.

 

[babetoo]

no question i would give up smell. the most important to me is sight. i use my eyes for everything that is meaningful in my life. my dear families faces, my books, my sewing and crafts. cooking requires reading. need to hear and wouldn't want to give up the touch of my kitties and all my children babies.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I keep being told I have no taste...

Seriously, it would have to be smell, Shrek agrees.

 

[niquejim]

I have virtually no sense of smell as it is (family trait), but I need to see my kids, touch my wife, taste good food and hear the blues(and to have the ability to rearrange the previous 4 as needed)

 

[chopper]

I have to agree with you on giving up smell, although I could go on after losing any of them with love in my heart. I have known someone who was blind but saw many things much clearer than I. I have known several deaf people who "listen" better than most people, and when my uncle was paralyzed and unable to feel much sensation at all, he found comfort in the memories of how it felt to be held and touched. I would dearly miss any of them, but would be ok. Even smell would be truly missed when bread was baking, or the neighbor was smoking his pipe, or even when spring's lilacs were in full bloom. I am so thankful for what I have, and I am blessed. If I lost one of my senses, I would still be blessed.

 

[Claire]

My sense of smell went haywire a few years ago, which took my sense of taste with it. Some of my favorite things started tasting and smelling like a gas station bathroom; a bad one. Once menopause ended, some of it came back. I lost something like 40 lbs (which I needed to lose). People kept telling me I must be happy to have lost the weight. The simple answer is no, losing the weight wasn't worth the loss of my joy in cooking and eating. The senses came back, and I'm back to being overweight. I'd rather be fat than not enjoy good food (you have to understand I'm not a junk food junkie; I cook and eat good healthy food most of the time, just too much of it!).

This is a discussion I have with a couple of friends, one who is blind. I was blind for a few months (an eye disease that, thank heaven, was cured). I think I'd go with the sense of taste and smell, even though I hated it when it happened to me. I'd have a hard row to hoe if I could not read. Hearing? well, sometimes I think that most people my age cannot hear anyway. Too much loud rock in their 20s, or the other half, too much artillery fire and flight line engines in their 20s.