The Ear / Hearing

The ear is not a neutral organ. It is not a loudspeaker that simply picks up what is being said around you — it is a gateway, and every gateway decides what is let in and what is not. When your hearing fades, when it hurts, is inflamed, whistles, rushes, or goes dull, your body is not simply saying: Here is a defect. It is saying: Something is not right with what you hear. Or with what you no longer want to hear. Or with the fact that you have not been listening to yourself for a long time.

We know this expression without really taking it in: "I can't stand listening to this anymore." We say it casually, as if it were just a turn of phrase. But language knows more than we do. The body takes such sentences seriously. It translates them — not immediately, not always, but often. And at some point the ear begins to do exactly what you wished for: to close up, to shut off, to withdraw.