Say What?

As a lawyer I talk for a living. That means that to do my job well I also listen for a living. That is causing me to have to make some big adjustments and to change my expectations of how well I can communicate.

There are not (I hope) a lot of people that realize how poor my hearing has become. Without my hearing aid, if everything breaks just right, I can clearly make out about a third of the words that I hear. With my hearing aid I can hear that third louder. The rest rumbles and with the hearing aid the other two thirds of what I hear rumbles louder.

I think that I do a very good job of figuring out what people must be saying to me. It is exhausting having to concentrate, theorize, speculate and interpret conversations. The other thing that I am learning about the workings of the brain is that in order to remember a given thing one must hear it pretty clearly. Things that are half heard are completely forgotten.

Last weekend someone brought me a ham to the tack shed while I was in the woods. The person that was there did not know the name of the person that brought it to me. He did not get the name because the person told him that he had told me that he would be bringing one by for me. I cannot figure out who that person was. I have no recollection of such a conversation with anyone.

I have made plea agreements that I would have never made if I had correctly understood what was being proposed. The worst part of it all is the telephone. I never liked talking on a phone away. I really find it very difficult to do now. There are very, very few people that I am comfortable speaking with on the phone. There is a small handful of people that know me well enough so that they can tell from my response if I did not understand the question. Speaking with everyone else is bad, very hard to do.

Sounds that come from multiple directions are the most difficult. Last week I attended a meeting of our local bar association. I think that it will be my last. I can only figure out what one person at a time is saying to me.

Oddest of ironies is that while every other aspect of my hearing is declining, there has never been a time when I had better pitch. There has never been a time when I could figure out songs better. Perhaps the skills acquired from having to concentrate so hard to understand people have lead to a better ability to concentrate on pitch and tone.

The bottom line is simply this--Send an email. Especially if whatever you are asking me is important.