Caroline, Chicago, IL
Nothing is a better complement to good food and drink than stimulating conversation. Three months ago, my sweet and talented friend mav of port2port, told me over the phone about a debate she and her dinner companions had during their New Year’s Eve feast. It occurred at a restaurant and even surrounding tables got involved in the discussion. I have been thinking about it ever since…
If you had to give up one of your 5 senses, which would it be?
After three months, I have come up with my own surprising answer: taste. Funny answer from a food blogger. Here is my rationale:
Sight - Immediately, I know I could not give it up. My world is one filled with color that lights my life.
Sound - Birds chirping, music, the voices of my loved ones… a life’s lullaby that could not be sacrificed.
Touch - I am so tactile and live for massage, soft fabric and texture. Not to mention, giving up touch would just be downright dangerous.
This leaves me with smell and taste. Food and drink are the often the delight of my days and at the center of my thoughts. But, we all know what happens when we have a cold… we can’t taste anything! We taste sweet, salt, sour and bitter things. The rest of our food experiences are all through the nose which can detect over 15,000 aromas.
So, if forced to give up a sense, I would sacrifice taste in the hopes that the smell of fresh popcorn, the soft texture of pastry cream along with the vanilla aroma and the cold creamy slide of ice cream would be enough to keep me going.
I turn the question to you.. which would it be???
March 29th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
this is so interesting! i think it would be sound for me. i could stand a little more quiet and stillness.
also, delurking to say: i love your blog! warmly, jen
March 29th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
This is a subject I think about a lot as I have no sense of smell. Of course it must affect my taste, but I’m not sure how. A post like this makes me realise what I’m mising out on
If someone was cruel enough to to take one of my three-and-a-half senses away (I’m rather short sighted too!) it would have to be sound for me.
March 29th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
Irene…your comment suprised me and showed me that I was not considering those who would be reading and already did lack a sense. I just looked at your flickr photos and it does look as if your life is filled with a lot of beauty! beautiful photos and thanks for your comment.
March 29th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
It’s an impossible choice! It would definitely be a toss-up between taste and smell for me. Can I experience one day without taste, then one day without smell before choosing?
March 30th, 2007 at 10:19 am
Interesting. When I was in Band, oh so many years ago, the drummer was Blind. While walking, he would turn and ask if I’d smelled the flower we just passed. It made me realize just how much we take for granted. Later in life, I worked with a Deaf person @ a Furniture MFg. Yowee, any of these would be a sad loss, but I’d pass on taste, although I’d surely miss Thai and other delicious foods from around the world! ; (
March 30th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Ooh, this is a really tough one. I can’t imagine not being able to smell things - it’s like an instant time machine to people, memories, etc. My mother lost her sense of taste and smell after a bad concussion a few years ago, but she never really had such a developed sense to begin with. Maybe I’d go with sense of sound? I like quiet… But truthfully, I’d rather not imagine a life without any of these senses and just feel happy that I’ve got them all
March 31st, 2007 at 7:12 pm
My sense of smell is so weak, I guess if I had to give up one of my senses, that would be it.
April 1st, 2007 at 4:43 pm
This really is a tough one. I actually read this a few days ago and waited to say something till I had thought about it all. I’d have to agree with you, on giving up the sense of taste. Everything else just seems too important to me. I remember a science experiment in 8th grade that I did, where I was blindfolded and had to guess what I was eating purely on smell. Well, the class tricked me and put an onion under my nose. I still had to take a bite, and thought for sure it was an onion…but it was an apple. So I’d like to think that my sense of smell would be enough to deal with not getting to taste my food.
April 6th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
I’m wondering what losing your sense of touch would be like. Would it be that you’d lose the nerve endings in your fingers but would have them in the rest of your body? Am I being too scientific with this, or is it up to my interpretation? I guess if I could still snuggle up in my fleece robe and have it cozying around my arms and legs; if I could feel the ocean around me as I swam, and could put my face on my puffy kitty’s belly, but I just wouldn’t have feeling in my fingertips, I’d go for no sense of touch.