Nearly everyday I speak with someone who clearly suffers from the affects of hearing loss.  Whenever I speak with someone who denies the handicap imposed by their hearing loss I often wonder what if the body hurt everytime a syllable was missed or if there was a twinge whenever a haircell was damaged.  This is not to say I want people to suffer physically on top of their hearing loss.  I just think we would have a better understanding of just how often hearing loss interferes in our life if we were notified we missed something.  Similar to a back injury.  We do not even consider the number of muscles, nor the frequency in which they are used to maintain our posture and breathing until we pull or damage one.  Even pulling one back muscle can make daily life nearly intollerable.    Unfortunately, as hearing impaired people go through thier day there is no shooting pain, ache or twinge.  Time just marches on and our mind gradually forgets the sound of gravel under our feet, the blinker in the car, and the cricket in the garage.  People don't stop to clarify the words they don't know weren't understood.  We too often just adjust to the new softer world wishing people would take the marbles out of their mouth and speak clearer.  Fortunately it doesn't hurt, but I often wonder how easy it would be to live in denial if it did?