Eh? What did you say?

While many seniors have some hearing loss, I have a significant deficiency. Being hearing impaired carries its frustrations for both the hearer and the speaker. I have experienced this several times recently.  

When I asked Sue to repeat something while we were driving, she wondered if my hearing were deteriorating even more because I seem to be asking her to repeat herself with greater frequency. And to be truthful, I sometimes don't even bother to ask because I evaluate that a certain message didn't strike me as being terribly important, so I let it slide. The necessity to repeat is frustrating for both parties after all, so one reiteration bypassed can be beneficial for the nerves.

Recently, I was out for coffee with the boys, and I just couldn't catch a certain word in the conversation. Bob repeated it. Nick repeated it. It took several repetitions before I clued in. It can be aggravating. It didn't help that I was sitting next to a speaker and that we are usually right under one at our other coffee venue.

Then there's music. Sue asked me to listen to the Britain's Got Talent segment, below. I asked if it were important that I listen to the words, and she said that it was, so I tried. While I caught a bit here and there and would think that I was starting to get it, the next words were indecipherable. They really did sound like they could be singing in a different language. Even though my hearing aids sufficiently amply the volume, I no longer seem to possess the sensitivity to discriminate amongst all sounds.

It seems to me that modern pop music relies more on the words than the tunes, and since I have so much trouble with the words, I simply can't appreciate the music the way that others do. Oh, for the good, old days of singable tunes.

For my part, it is frustrating when people, after raising their voices or speaking more clearly for a sentence, go right back to their previous volume. Everyone does this. People have a certain manner of speech, and they revert right back to it naturally. It’s just the way that it is.

I also recognize that it is frustrating for others to not be heard and to continually be asked to repeat themselves. And then they have to do it again. The cycle keeps repeating itself, probably at least partly because hearing impairment is invisible, and what people can't see they tend to forget. Hearing-impaired people still look normal, but we aren't.

After partly missing out on the above video, Sue was feeling sorry for me, so she later came back with a compilation of harmony auditions for BTG. They were great vocals that could be appreciated for their sheer musicality. Since there are several in this post, I have cued to one that gave me the feels. I didn't have to follow the words to be touched.

I have cued the video to one clip that affected me but there are others if you were to care to listen to more.