To Lose Sight

The world is very loud.  Noisy.  Voluminous in thick waves of sound.  But we barely notice it.  The humming of the lights, people passing by, air conditioners, traffic, even our own breathing.  We've all grown up in an environment where we are used to at least a little sound, somewhere, all the time. 

I used to find sound fascinating.  The drastic change in sound as soon as three people started conversing rather than two was something that always amazed me.  The thin air of one voice all of a sudden gained an overlap of another.  It was thickening like layers of honey collecting at the bottom of a cup of tea.  Indeed, the reception of sound is a fantastic thing. 

I recently went to a tourist attraction called "Dialogue in the Dark".  You are given a blind man's stick and put in a series of rooms in pitch black darkness with a guide (all guides are visually impaired).  The whole point is to experience being blind, relying on only touch, smell, and hearing to navigate in the darkness. To be honest, it's not for everyone.  Kids sometimes aren't mature enough for it, or are scared of the dark.  I don't blame them.  However, for me, my problem was the sudden barrage of information to my ears.  I discovered that I relied heavily on my eyes to process auditory information.  If a car honked, I turned to look at it.  If someone spoke, I could confirm it with my sight.  However, as I stood in a lightless room with the sounds of a busy intersection simulated, I couldn't help but be extremely overwhelmed.  Overwhelmed by the seemingly large quantity of information I would have confirmed with vision, but couldn't.  All the sounds I had overlooked with my eyes.  I was a tiny being facing a tsunami of sound stimuli. It was disorientating.  Belittling.  Daunting. My body produced a headache in no time.  I didn't want to process so much noise at once.  It was too much without eyesight. 
Then on top of that... I had to move around.  Navigate using a wooden apparatus that had loose connection to my body.  My headache became worse.  Why was the world so loud?  Why couldn't it just shut up for a while? 
And to think that it was all simulation. 

Afterwards, sound was a lot different.  It was no longer a fascinating concept that I could think to observe attentively.  It was a vast, endless swamp of information, one that I could never hope to process and understand should I lose my vision.  I had developed two things after that experience:
1. A newfound deep respect for visually impaired people.  Especially those who lost their sight after adolescence.
2. A new fear.  Fear of losing sight. I didn't think it would be something I would be afraid of, but after having a taste of the world with only ears...

Side note: I'm not saying Dialogue in the Dark is a bad attraction.  In fact, it's very well done and is unique for a tourist attraction.  It just isn't for everyone.  I'm just a wierdo who is hypersensitive to things concerning sound... So don't think that as soon as you come out you will develop a phobia for blindness.  If you have a chance to go there, it's a good experience!