The Spring 2008 quarter is rapidly winding down as everyone scrambles to assure that they have all their assignments completed. My waking/sleeping hours have become more inverted than normal. I fell asleep last night (really, I should say tonight - as this hour is without the company of the Sun's light,) around 7:30pm. I guess I should not have been surprised to wake up around 1:30am feeling pretty refreshed. After all, 6 hours is a pretty good night of sleep for me. With no one else awake and not wanting to make too much commotion, I decided to read for a little while.
My wife gave me a book by Karin Mango entitled Hearing Loss that she picked up from a bin full of books that her school library was giving away. I, honestly, hadn't really thought that I would read it, but it was on my bedside table along with a flashlight; so, a couple of hours later, I have finished about half of the book. The book is not at all what I was expecting... an anatomical treatise on how and why (or why not) our ability to hear is determined or affected. Mango does deal with these more "scientific" explanations, but in addition, she recounts the history of struggle that deaf and hearing impaired individuals have faced through out time. The world, in general, is not very accommodating to the needs of those with physical challenges, but it is true that those who lack the ability to hear and/or speak are at a particular disadvantage when it comes to social interactions. If you were born with no ability to hear, imagine the difficulty of learning a language. It seems that it would be difficult enough to lose the ability to hear later in life, but to live in a world devoid of sound from the beginning of your life would pose challenges that to most would seem insurmountable.
The Blessings that we take for granted every day - sight, hearing, speech, and mobility are so important in determining who we are and how we live and interact with each other that to be deprived of only one of these functions would be truly devastating. I thank God for how easy I really have it.
To those of you familiar with the history of Chiropractic, you will remember
that the "first adjustment" was made on a man named Harvey Lillard on September 18th, 1895 in Davenport, Iowa by Daniel David Palmer. Mr. Lillard was a deaf janitor that was working in the building that D.D. had his office. He had recounted to Palmer that he had normal hearing at birth, but had later lost it. Lillard informed Palmer that while working in a cramped area seventeen years earlier, he felt a 'pop' in his back, and had been nearly deaf ever since. Palmer’s examination found a sore lump which indicated spinal misalignment and a possible cause of Lillard's deafness. Palmer corrected the misalignment, and Lillard could then hear the wheels of the horse-drawn carts in the street below.
If only Chiropractic were a cure for all Deafness!
Unfortunately, it is not. Sometimes the limitations of our matter are beyond repair.
Personally, I have, over the last few years, lost much of my ability to hear higher frequencies in one of my ears. The MDs tell me that I have the left ear of a seventy year old man and the right ear of a twenty year old. The only time I really notice any difficulty hearing is when there is a lot of background noise around me. Then, sometimes it is a little difficult to make out what someone is saying. And, truly, it can be very frustrating...maybe more for my wife than myself.
Recently, I have been working with a patient that is not only deaf, but can not speak either. The experience is eye opening. I feel that God has placed this person under my care for a reason. It is so easy to take our abilities for granted. It truly humbles me to realize that we are here to serve our fellow man and must not get wrapped up in the day to day minutia of our own lives. Our talents and abilities should not just be tools for making a better living, but should be tools for making living better for those people whom we have the opportunity to serve.
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