bf4life-hearing

Hey!

So, I sincerely hope that you guys are having an amazing Christmas! Hopefully, your dining room table is piled high with food and the floor beneath your tree is stuffed with presents! (Though, if you're like me -- not celebrating Christmas -- don't feel bad, 'cause there is always Adam Sandler's awesome song!) 

In lieu of the Christmas spirit, bf4life-hearing is "decking the hall" with an awesome post about the famous song, "Silent Night." Now, most of us remember singing the song as part of a holiday concert when we were just little tadpoles. The traditional Austrian Christmas carol, which was written in 1816 by Father Joseph Mohr and has been translated into over 44 languages, commemorates Christmas [... or rather the birth of Jesus Christ]. 

Since bf4life-hearing a blog without any religious affiliation, I wanted to emphasize the fact that every night for t(w)eens who are deaf/hoh is a "Silent Night," since every night we go to sleep without our hearing aids in silence. Similar to the song, every night is "calm." In that sense, Christmas [the holiday which the song is about] happens every night for t(w)eens who are deaf/hoh! How amazing does that sound; doesn't it sound like we should get presents every night!?!?! 

Well, going along with that, I rewrote the lyrics of the first stanza to "Silent Night" in order to commemorate the story of going to sleep without hearing aids: [NOTE: This is not meant to offend anyone's religious beliefs!]  

Silent night, quiet night
All is calm, all is light
Round yon hearing aids and batteries
Put them in your dehumidifier
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace
[While everyone else listens to the traffic!]

What are you doing for the holiday season? How do you hear over the loud noisy holiday meals? Any tips on dealing with the holidays with a hearing loss? What is your favorite Christmas carol? 

COMMENT!

Love,

bf4life-hearing

P.S. Note the hearing aid ornaments on bf4life-hearing's tree!

Hey!

Well fair old England--the land of tea crumpets, anglo-saxon accents, Cornwall and Buckingham Palace-- did not always have a Queen. In the time before present-Queen Elizabeth's long reign (which goes back nearly 59 years!!!), there were many Kings and Queens who followed each other to the throne consecutively. 

Queen Elizabeth the Second's father--King George VI--who besides raising a very proper daughter, was King of the United Kingdom from 1936 until 1952. The reason why I am giving this brief history lesson is not because I dream of being a teacher, but because last night, I braved the bitter, winter wind, to see an excellent film, "The King's Speech," which stars Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter. The movie follows the relationship between the former-King of England, George VI, and his speech therapist, Lionel Logue, as they work together to overcome the King's debilitating speech impediment. Using unorthodox methods, Logue helps King George VI (a.k.a Bertie) overcome his stammer, in order to effectively lead his great empire--the United Kingdom--through the travails of World War Two.

As I watched the film, I was shocked to see early 20th-century speech therapy methods included the following: speaking with marble balls in the mouth (à la My Fair Lady), having your wife sit on you in order to stretch out your diaphragm [although my speech therapist said that it was a perfectly normal speech therapy exercise...] and shouting curse words to relax your mind [she also mentioned that the way to discern a real stutter from fake like in Glee is to make them sing, since people never stutter singing or shouting]. Nevertheless, these seemingly ancient methods obviously worked since the King was able to overcome his stammer.