Hear and Now
What if you couldn’t hear a thing.
I’m not one for DVDs. I’m not a member of NetFlix, my DVD player gathers dust. If I find myself with a free hour or two, I fire up the TV and see what’s available on demand. I may not watch much, but I subscribe to each and every channel, I want the full cornucopia of offerings, and most of these are available on demand, at least those of the pay channels.
Last night I started coursing through the offerings, looking for something that caught my fancy, before settling on another episode of A&E’s "Intervention", which Felice and I have gotten hooked on. When you find out at the end that they’ve given up on rehab, that they’re back on the street, you experience a great counterpoint to the mainstream cultural fare, not everything works out o.k., even though sometimes on "Intervention" it actually does. What about that Bryant Gumbel sports show on HBO? Didn’t I read they were going to do something on the Patriots spying scandal? Showtime is the new king of pay TV, and for a minute there, we actually watched a comedy special on the outlet, but then I went back to HBO and fired up this documentary, "Hear and Now", which I’d read a review of in the "New York Times" a year ago… I needed some real life, something removed from the glitz and the glamour. And I got it.
What would you do if your child was deaf? Sally’s parents denied it. Even though both their fathers were doctors. They didn’t want to accept it, until at four years old an independent physician confirmed it, she couldn’t hear a thing. Paul’s mother just couldn’t cope, she cried as she pushed the stroller. Her child would never speak! But both sets of parents decided to send their children to a unique school, where by holding on to teachers’ throats, they could learn to speak by feeling the vibrations, they became functioning members of society, they were mainstreamed in their local high schools, and there they were confronted with the fact that they were different.
Paul expressed interest in a girl in class. A friend asked if he wanted her number. But what would a number do for him? He couldn’t use the phone. Sally stopped speaking at all, so others wouldn’t know she was deaf, so she would fit in. They soldiered on. Paul went to college and became an engineer, they reunited when he went to graduate school in St. Louis, they got married. And had three hearing children.
Can you imagine?
The film is constructed so well. The set-up is given, and just when we think we’re going forward, we go backward, in time, to the beginning.
Sally and Paul were once young. Their family came alive via home movies. Despite being deaf, they were full of life. Now, at age 65, they had decided to get cochlear implants, so they could finally hear.
These are not the 65 year olds of Hollywood. There’s no plastic surgery and dyed hair. Sally and Paul’s hair is white. Their bodies are a bit lumpy. They’re not denying their age, they’ve accepted it and are enjoying living, in retirement, on Lake Ontario, near Rochester.
They speak of being left out. Paul would like to be engaged, he would like to have a conversation. He and Sally went to the New York World’s Fair and saw the picture phone… They became elated. They never got one, but ultimately with the TTY, the telephone typing machine, suddenly, they could connect with people thousands of miles away!
They were doing this together. They had the surgery days apart. Sally had complications. But, eventually, they had their C.I.’s turned on.
And it was nothing like what they expected. For they’d never heard before, they experienced sounds, but what did they mean?
It was overwhelming. The background noise we tune out was deafening. Wearing the C.I. was tiresome. And although they continued to make progress, the audiologist told them at their age…there may not be enough time to remap the brain, so they could fully hear and understand.
It may sound like I’ve given the plot away. But this is no sci-fi production, no caper flick. This is real life.
Far from the glitter and the glitz real people live their lives. Coping with complications. Paul thought of running away, from college, from his family, but for what?
Sally loves the radio… She turns up metal music in her Jeep to experience the vibrations.
When Paul finally hears music, there’s an expression on his face that should inspire all musicians. He finally gets it, this is what it’s about!
I might see "Iron Man" when it comes to the small screen. Or on a transatlantic flight. But I’m never going to watch "Speed Racer", life’s just too short. You live and then you die. Watching the home movies and Sally and Paul in the present, nothing could be more evident. Every life has an arc, no matter how much we deny it. You can either face up to life’s hardships and soldier on or give up. But giving up leads to no satisfaction.
Helen Keller said it’s better to be blind than deaf. To be deaf is to be left out. Sally and Paul, despite their individual accomplishments, want to come in. They decided to have surgery to come in. Dial up "Hear and Now" on HBO on demand to experience their joy and their pain. You’ll see yourself in their eyes if you’ve ever had surgery. It takes such a toll on the body. But we want to get better, we want to live a full life.
Sally and Paul Taylor have. But they’ve got no desire to give up. They want more. It’s the human condition.
Watch the trailer via the link below… You’ll get the idea.
