OPINION

OPINION: Discovering a new way of writing, by accident

In the category of "you don't know what you've got until it's gone," the human body has probably thousands of functions we all take for granted every day.

Take, for example, hearing.

Several years ago, a friend and I were shooting at an indoor firing range in Springdale. Naturally, the place had all kinds of warnings about protective gear, including one of the most critical pieces of equipment: ear muffs to protect one's ears.

Ears don't like to be covered up. At least mine don't. So as we fired our weapons, my ears used perhaps their only defense mechanism to suggest removing my ear muffs. They started itching. I don't know any other way to explain it other than my ear was so bothered it took control of my hand, which reached up to scratch that itch, first pushing back one side of the ear muffs. As soon as my ear canal was exposed, a shooter in the first lane fired, sending sound waves bouncing off a concrete wall and directly at my ear.

I spent the next several days wondering if I was ever going to hear again out of that ear.

Hearing loss is a challenging issue. Someone once told me it is perhaps the only disability for which people blame the person who suffers from it. Just think about the last time you were around someone who struggled to hear you. Did you get frustrated with them? Did you take out your exasperation on them? Did you give up and stop communicating with them, potentially furthering the sense of isolation they likely already experienced?

Last week, a car wreck on Fayetteville's College Avenue provided a new opportunity for me to experience disability, although thankfully of the temporary variety. My wife, Sheryl, and I were in a collision involving three cars. Last Thursday, we had a lot to be thankful for as we spent time with family, because the wreck easily could have involved more serious injuries. We're thankful to God and the designers of our 2014 Honda Accord for the airbags and other automotive engineering that protected us quite amazingly. We are fortunate it was the glass, plastic and metal pieces of the car forced into new shapes and not us.

Except for my finger. It's broken in two places. Again fortunately, it is on my left hand, and I'm right handed. But for a guy who spends much of his working day at a keyboard, a splint immobilizing two fingers is a complication. My three remaining fingers can't even reach the keyboard as a result.

At first I considered how well I might write just using letters like JKL and others on the right-hand side of the keyboard. A few readers have, after all, been after me for years to write more from the right. Maybe it's just because my initials are GH that I've always preferred the middle.

Alas, it seems all of the keys on the keyboard have some importance, even those on the left.

So I spent last week trying my hand -- or, really, not trying my hand -- at dictation to my computer. It's a skill I will be trying to perfect over the next six to eight weeks. It's coming along.

Except I have to be careful monitoring how the computer interprets my voice. It's either my accent's fault or the computer's. And, of course, I blame the computer.

In the third paragraph of this column when I mentioned ear muffs, the computer's first interpretation was "your mouse." Friday's editorial mentioned Washington County Justice of the Peace Butch Pond. Thankfully, before it got to print, I noticed my trusty computer had interpreted his name as "Bush Pond."

More than ever, I'm confident in the wise advice that everyone needs an editor.