Day 52: Changes

Life is a sea of change.  Some change is voluntary, and that sort of change is usually experienced as good or at least positive.  Some of the changes in our life, on the other hand, are involuntary.  Thankfully, a lot of that involuntary change--hearing loss, for example--happens so slowly that we don't notice it happening.  Lately, we seem to be bombarded by excessive amouints of change--partly due to technology and the profit that comes to that industry from rapid changes.  Do we really need Office 2010 or is this just Microsoft needing to sell us more product to fund the overcompensation of its executives?  We probably don't and wouldn't buy into it if the information technology people didn't need to foist it on us to justify their own jobs.  And so it goes.  It's no wonder then that so many of us suffer from change overload.  We want to keep our big cars, our gas lawn mowers, air-conditioning to keep our homes at 75 degrees in the summer and heart to keep our homes at 75 in the winter.  We want to stay young forever.  We don't want to change...and, quite unrealistically, we don't want others to change either.

Gracie and me enjoying the Japanese Peace Garden

As wonderful as Gracie is and as grateful as I am to have her, living with a hearing dog is a big change.  I chose that change, so for me, the change is positive.  Not easy and not without new responsiblities and challenges...but good.  I am not the only one who is changed, though, by the arrival of Gracie in my life.  My family and friends are also impacted.  Though the impact on them is to a lesser degree, for them this is involuntary change and therefore problematic in a different way.  First of all, they are confronted with Gracie.  Though she is a wonderful dog, she is still a dog.  Not everyone loves having a dog around, even a loveable dog like Gracie.  In addition, Gracie's presence reminds them that I don't hear well.  I have not heard well for a long time and have many strategies for dealing with that fact that let others off the hook for the most part. I have made it easy for them to forget that I am often like a non-native speaker in this regard.  

As the days go along and the novelty of my having a hearing dog is beginning to wear off--both for me and for those close to me--I am beginning to realize that this change that I have chosen is going to be too big a change for some people.  I will be seeing some friends less than I used to and will probably end up not staying friends at all with others.  While that is sad, it is part of the change, and I am prepared to accept that in exchange for having a constant friend and companion: Gracie.