Lessons From The Deaf Mute

I grew up to be a hyper-inquisitive kid. I was so inquisitive that I had a question to ask about almost anything. Sometimes it freaked out whoever was unfortunate to be the recipient of the almost endless barrage of questions. 

A a lot of times, though, people were glad to answer my questions, other times, however, when some of the questions I asked were too strange or too inappropriate; I would receive, in return to my questions, responses such as a blank to almost horrid faces (and every other facial expression in between), of which, even without them speaking, tells me quite clearly, to zip my mouth a bit and be more careful with my almost obnoxious inquisitive nature.

Here’s one of those horrid-face-provoking questions of mine. My mum happened to be the recipient of this one. I was out that day and I saw a deaf young man. I observed him closely and though I knew full well that he was deaf, he could only make meaningless and barely audible noises. My inquisitive gene was activated and I started thinking. When I got back home, I did what I knew how best to do. I asked her a question, ‘Mummy’, I started, ‘Why is it that deaf people can’t speak, even though there’s nothing wrong with their mouths?’

I can’t really remember what exactly she said then, but I remember not being satisfied with the response I got (she didn’t give me a horrid look though).

I tried asking a few other people, but I still didn’t get a fully satisfying answer. Some told me that people who are deaf are dumb by default; that whatever issue they had with their ears affected their mouths as well, in all of the cases.

This idea made a little sense to me initially but as I advanced in age & knowledge, I found out that it was probably a not-too-sensible conclusion to make.

So, why are deaf people with perfect mouths unable to speak?

Surprisingly, the answer to my question came with another question. When I asked myself this second question and thought about it for a little while, I beamed and clasped my hands in victory, having cracked my source of confusion.

Then something happened. I realized that what I learnt from the answer to my question could be applied to almost every other aspect of life and great lessons could be learnt from it, and that‘s what I wish to share with you.

Just in case you think that I’ve forgotten to tell you the second question, here it is; ‘What are these deaf people going to say?’ Think about this for a moment.

What is the deaf guy I saw that day going to say, because he was born deaf and hasn’t heard human voice and language for once in his entire life?

What is he going to say since he can’t even hear himself at all? Even though our guy knows what the alphabets look like, does he know what they sound like?

Now let’s consider a situation where he used to have his hearing ability before he lost it. We discover that over time; progressively but surely, he loses his ability to speak as well- why? Well, because he stopped hearing. That’s why.

Is this beginning to make any sense to you? A man cannot speak that which he has not heard, and for that which he has heard, he is very likely to lose if he stops hearing it.

This, gentlemen and ladies is the summary of life. This applies to relationships, career, education, etc. What you have is what you can give; what you hear is what you can say; the standards you have experienced are the only ones you can make decisions on; and just in case you already have something, beware, for you’re very sure to lose it if you stop hearing- if you stop learning.

IN CONCLUSION

Learn something new every day, or at least recycle something you already know and learn it afresh.

Life moves fast. Knowledge doubles faster than the average person can cope with. Aim to be above average. Learn more; be more; have more… & hey, speak more…

To your great success