Deaf Or Blind?

It was 3AM and we had been drinking and smoking weed all day. I was munching on magic mushrooms again. It was our weekend in Portland, and my motto was ‘I am playing with my demons this weekend.’ We were partying hard.

The man was in a Metallica t-shirt, ripped skinny jeans, black boots and yellow sunglasses that balanced on the tip of his nose. He had just come back from the strip club piss drunk. He shouted at us,

“Hey! Listen! I have a question! Would y’all rather lose your hearing or your sight?”

The women with us all said they’d rather lose their hearing over their sight. And all of the men said sight over their hearing. This was curious to me, as I was sitting on the couch, barely awake. I made a mental note to reflect on it in the morning. If I remembered it, that is.

Then the man in the yellow sunglasses stood up and started pacing across the room. He had been waiting eagerly to tell us his answer to his thought experiment. He said,

“Listen! As cheesy as this might sound – as cliche it might be – but the answer for that question for me is found in love…”

The room got quiet. He got louder.

“The idea that I could fall in love with someone and all I know about them is everything they’ve ever told me… there is something so beautiful in that! Think about it! No superficial bullshit! Just someone's voice…”

He stopped pacing.

“Maybe if we were blind, then we could see people for who they really are underneath their skin.”

All of the women decided to change their answers when he sat back down. I made another mental note on that.

The thought experiment rattled around behind the eyes, as the room started to spin. Then, I passed out. I had a dream that I was blind that night, and when I woke up, I had a muscle cramp in my left calf.

I let out a scream.

-C.H.