some of you know and some of you don't - i have a condition called "synesthesia," and what it means, basically, is that my brain is kaplooey and as a result, i can taste sounds. true story. i. can. taste. sounds.
synesthesia can take several forms - some synesthetes can hear colors. some can taste colors. some can feel sounds, and still others can taste sounds. that's what i do. i taste sounds. sounds goofy!
it is goofy! and it's also fun! i can't imagine what life would be like if i didn't taste sounds. conversation would be sooooooooo boring. music would be soooooooooo boring. everything would be soooooooooooo boring. i mean, wouldn't it? isn't it?
in the course of a typical spoken sentence, i will taste about 3 or 4 or 5 flavors - sometimes more.
take "in the course of a typical spoken sentence, i will taste about 3 or 4 or 5 flavors - sometimes more." to me, that tastes like this: "in butter coleslaw butter a noodles cement vinegar, i melted velveeta taste about grape popsicle sloppy joe 4 sloppy joe 5 flavors - sometimes sloppy joe."
i. am. not. making. this. up. (look it up!)
i have probably done this since birth ("birth" tastes like angel food cake), but my earliest memory of it is in the 3rd grade. however, it wasn't until i was a sophomore in college that i found out that not everyone tastes sounds......and it wasn't until then that anyone found out that i could! i had never said a word to anyone about it because, well, why mention what i thought was pervasive? it would be like saying, "my heart beats." well, duh......doesn't everybody's?
over the years, my ability to taste sounds has expanded. for most of my life, i could "only" taste words, but i now can also taste music, white noise, and other sounds. still, by far, the most pronounced flavors come from spoken words.
including names.
and that is where it really gets fun.......especially if we're in the market for "what to name the new baby!" :)
for most people, trying to figure out what to name the new baby probably ranges somewhere between pleasant and difficult. for me, it's a rip-roarin', good time smorgasbord!
abby (tastes like apple dumplings) and eli (tastes like lemon jello before it is congealed) have pretty much already settled on what to name their new baby if it's a girl. since it is their perogative to announce that name - not mine - i will not tell you what they have chosen, but i will tell you what it tastes like:
the first name tastes like a cross between cotton candy and the smell of joy dish liquid and the middle name tastes like cracker jacks.
really! no lie! is that a great name or what?
i can't imagine what life would be like if i didn't taste sounds. life would be sooooooooo boring. conversation would be soooooooooooo boring. music would be sooooooooooo boring. everything would be sooooooooooo boring.i mean, wouldn't it?
(well. everything except my grandchildren, that is.)
:)
