On The Hearing Test
03_31_24 - FCO to JFK
Eliza Barry Callahan’s debut, The Hearing Test, is a triumph. For the things that she heard people say. And for what those things made her think about. She has a beautiful mind.
Most people don’t keep a journal of the clever things they hear. Most people don’t even listen to other people. Most people don’t listen to themselves. Or, maybe they do. I don’t know. I’m not most people.
Callahan writes about what she did, and did not do, when she suddenly lost her hearing. She meditates on her actions. On the things which she did, and did not do, when she suddenly lost her hearing. She meditates on her feelings. She has a beautiful heart.
There was something about how the most important sounds we hear, or the most important messages we receive (via sound), are those which are misunderstood. I can’t exactly remember what she was saying. I don’t have the quote in front of me. But that is my misunderstanding. I couldn’t read an author who doesn’t subscribe to this. I don’t know why I have such a problem with people who think they are right. I am never right. Even when I tell you that I’m right. Once I think about my position for long enough, I realize that I’m wrong and you’re right. Usually.
One of the things Eliza did when she suddenly lost her hearing was see a hypnotherapist. One message she received was from the wife of the hypnotherapist who had spent some time south of Madrid where she developed a certain belief. The therapist’s wife “explained that... when you have no particular place to be, and you are in a foreign or unfamiliar place, you are actually moving around with the specific purpose of locating a place within yourself at which you may or may not arrive.”
As soon as I read this passage, I have to admit that I cried. I have to admit that I was on a plane to New York, returning from Sicily. How many times have I tread aimlessly in a foreign land? How many times have I been looking for a place in myself? How many times have I found it just where I thought it would be?
