The classic question from childhood: Would you rather be deaf or blind?

[Phillycat]

I don't know why, but we endlessly discussed this when I was a kid. I always said I would rather be deaf, because it seems to me you are a lot more helpless blind than deaf. In other words, it would be easier to live a "normal" life deaf than blind. On the other hand, the idea of giving up music breaks my heart.

What do you think?

[Phillycat]

1. Ooh, I hope whoever that is explains how I've been unknowingly offensive

[Nikia]

2. I would be legally blind if my vision was not correctable

And it really isn't that horrible. I can walk around and find stuff that I know approximately where it is as long as it is light as I depend on seeing color to distinguish anything from anything else. If you are talking about total darkness blind, that would take longer to get used to, but still better than total deafness. Whether I am naturually wired this way or was "blind" during a vital time in my development, I am much more sound oriented and less visually oriented than most people.
Jobwise, it might be slightly harder being blind, but I am sure that newly completely deaf people have a hard time working too. not being able to drive would not bother me too much. I feel like I drive because it is expected of me. The whole reading and writing issue thing might bother me initially, but there is braille to learn and software that reads and writes for you.

[jpgray]

3. Deaf

I could go to see the shows of a friend's band and:

1) Be blissfully unaware if it was good or awful.

2) Never have to give my "honest opinion" on their music.

[mitchum]

7. jp. you took the sardonic words right out of my mouth :)

[Ariana Celeste]

4. I already can barely see

And I wouldn't want to live without music

So I choose 'blind'

[Rosemary2205]

5. At this point I would not mind being deaf

The world is just getting too damn noisy for my taste. I can't go anywhere without someone's car boom booming or yakking non stop on a cellphone or kids screaming or some buzzer going off. I'm so sick of getting blasted all the time, quite frankly I'm not sure if I'd even miss music.

My only regret would not being able to hear little kids giggle.

[pitohui]

9. i'm w. this person

too much noise in life, and i've noticed traveling to foreign countries where i don't speak the language that communicating (yakking) all the time is waaayyyyy over-rated because you don't miss it for a minute or i don't anyhoo

you just lose too much freedom if you can't see, drive, etc. plus all the beautiful things of the world that don't just sit there waiting for you to explore them by touch, you would be cut off from the world of wild animals pretty much forever, they're not gonna sit there and be petted, hell, you'd be pretty much cut-off from the beauty of the night sky, the mountains, the sea, everything that is too large for any sense but visual

[KamaAina]

6. Everyone always says deaf, but knowing people in both camps...

I've got to say that I'm leaning rather strongly toward blind.

It is a major annoyance to have to schedule an ASL interpreter whenever you have a staff meeting, doctor appointment, or (I kid you not) summer camp. Two adult interpreters had to accompany one deaf teenager I know to science camp, because one can only interpret for about 45 minutes at a time without a break. In some cases, people's own (hearing) parents never learn how to sign to their own deaf children, who naturally grow up preferring the company of other signing people, often at schools for the deaf.

In the words of the immortal Helen Keller, perhaps the ultimate authority on the subject, "Being blind separates me from the world of things, but being deaf separates me from the world of people."

The one thing that would probably freak most people out about being blind is not driving. Given the state of mass transit almost everywhere except NYC, this is quite understandable. However, I don't drive anyway, and so being blind wouldn't be a step down for me; in fact, if I had a travel cane, people would probably get up and offer me a seat, so I wouldn't have to worry about how sickeningly overcorowed the flippin' bus is anymore!

edit: Who says being deaf means you have to live without music? Check out the world's only all-deaf rock band, Beethoven's Nightmare:

http://www.beethovensnightmare.com/store/default.php

After 30 years of performing before deaf audiences across the United States of America, the all-deaf rock and roll band, Beethoven's Nightmare made music history in Nov. 15 with the recording of its first album, "Turn It Up Louder" at Ocean Way Studios in Hollywood....

"We love music. And we want to show America and the world that being deaf doesn't exclude you from loving and performing music," deaf-guitarist Steve Longo said on behalf of the all-deaf trio. "We want to dispel the mystery and myths about deafness and deliver our work of art that we'd like to believe Ludwig Van Beethoven would have found intriguing." Beethoven's birthday is Dec. 17.

Thirty years ago, Steve Longo, (guitarist) Bob Hiltermann (drummer) and Ed Chevy (bass player) launched their inventive journey when the three met while attending college at Galluadet (sic) University in Washington, D.C. Their passion for rock and roll music kept them playing and finding ways to excel and defy deaf barriers.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. I recalled Helen Keller's observation, too, and

since language is such a basic part of being human, the inability to hear or speak cuts one off from most of the larger world. Either one is limited to the small deaf community of fluent signers or one has to struggle to read lips (turn the TV sound off and see how well you do) and reproduce sounds they can't hear. Even if one does learn to lip read and speak, one has great difficulty following a multi-person conversation and cannot perceive ambient conversations at all.

It is extremely difficult for someone who has been profoundly deaf from birth to deal with spoken English. Some of the great lip reading and speaking success stories, such as percussionist Evelyn Glennie, lost their hearing after they had learned to speak.

Read Oliver Sacks' book about deafness for a better understanding of what so-called "prelingulally" deaf people face.

By contrast, blind children learn to speak as well as sighted children. As KamaAina pointed out, blind adults cannot drive, but the ones I have known do remarkably well getting around, interacting with people, and holding responsible jobs.

[Oeditpus Rex]

8. Blind

"Without music, life would be a mistake." ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

[rug]

10. Deaf

“There is nothing like the sight of an old enemy down on his luck.” - Euripides

[jpgray]

16. Yeah, until you are torn apart by his hunting dogs.

[VelmaD]

14. that sums up my feelings...

exactly. Without music...well, I can't even imagine that.

[Ms_Dem_Meanor]

12. Deaf, especially when I was a teen...

Because my mother could work a nerve to the point that I wished I was deaf!!!
But I love her!

[RetroLounge]

13. Deaf

I would rather see my kids grow up...

Plus I could use sign language:

on a plane...

RL

[KitchenWitch]

15. Can I be blind in one eye and deaf in the opposite ear?

:P

[Downtown Hound]

17. Helen Keller once said that if she could have any one of her senses back

it would be sight.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

18. I'm thinking now of that expression: There are none so blind as those who will not see...

None so deaf as those who will not listen.

Thanks for reminding me to do both! :hug:

[QMPMom]

19. I'd rather be deaf. I couldn't tolerate not being able to read.

[philosophie_en_rose]

20. Deaf. ASL is a beautiful language.

Nothing wrong with being blind, but it seems more difficult than being deaf.