How awesome that the tiniest newborn comes programmed with the five senses! How much we take for granted with so little thought for the ability to see, hear, smell, touch, and taste! It seems that we don’t think much about it until we see someone who has had to function with one or more of the senses missing. I have read stories of people who were blind who were just being so thankful they could hear; on the other hand, people who are deaf who are so thankful they can see. Because of age my senses are not as acute as they used to be, but nothing too troublesome yet.
But this is not to be a blog on the value of senses but about which I one would give up if I were forced to choose. If a doctor were going into my brain, and he must sacrifice some of my senses, what would be my priorities?
Please sacrifice the senses in this order: taste, smell, touch, hearing, sight. I would make the decision based on what I consider the most important to my safety. In over eighty years, I don’t think I have ever tasted anything that would have harmed me if I had eaten it. One night not long ago, I smelled gas in my house. I got up about two o’clock to discover I had accidentally turned a stove gas knob to the on position, I suppose when I was washing the stove top. I believe it was a nudge from the Lord that I awoke rather than slept blissfully into unconsciousness.
Touch seems insignificant, but it is so important to not injuring oneself in ways that are only avoided because of touch. I have heard that lepers lose their flesh because of not having nerve endings to warn them of not to touch something dangerous. (I’m not sure about that.) But I am sure I don’t want to hold on to my hot hair curler from the wrong end. If I couldn’t feel it, it would do great harm.
Hearing and sight? I guess they would be about equal for safety. I just think I would rather see my grand-babies grow rather than hear them if I had to make a choice. Can’t argue the point.
I am thankful for a Creator God who covered the basics.
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(This is a re-blog with minor changes from an assignment in Blogging 101 in June, two years ago. The assignment was to write about which sense I would give up if I had to make the choice. I decided it was worth another look. Some of you have been with me for two years. Others have not. So here’s to a second time around.)
Sweet aroma 
ouch I couldn’t make such a decision as I pray to keep them all 🙂
a lepers skin does fall off because that’s part of the disease 😦
Trying to make a decision like that sure makes one mindful of how much we take for granted. Thanks for the comment.
or having any sense or limb out of action for a while makes us more appreciative, thanks Oneta 🙂
😀
Certainly does make us think about what we have and be grateful. Helen Keller, and Joni Eriksen-Tada come to mind when I think…. in Helens case about what God did in her life from born blind, deaf and dumb and the difference she made in our world. Joni (of course) a senseless thoughtless dive into a pool – quadriplegic from age 17 – yet what our creative God did with what she had left to bring life and Hope to all the disabled people in the world who love the Lord. You always provoke me to think, beyond my own day……. with your blogs, Oneta, thank you.
And thank you for adding real live people to the scene. They were the kind who proved that God was faithful to them in their hardships and we reaped the benefits.
Interesting post, Oneta. Having just come through a time when my eyes went all screwy and double-vision was a constant (they thought I had fibromyalgia rheumatic and was going blind), I can say that is the LAST sense I’d want to give up. But I learned something about taste for me. If I can’t taste, I don’t want to eat. And I couldn’t, and it got me in trouble because I was undernourished and dehydrated all the time. They had to make me eat. I didn’t care. So I might have to rethink that question!
Interesting about the taste. I guess I wouldn’t like that for sure! So glad that has not been a choice I’ve had to make in real life. 😀 It would definitely be scary to go through the situation you have had.