"Without" + "Smell"

When I arrived at the section of Ackerman's book called "Anosmia," I really didn't know what I was going to be reading about. I'd never heard of the word before, so I dove right in. When I came up for air, my outlook on smell and taste was altered forever. That sounds a little dramatic, I know, but it really affected my outlook on life.

Taste is such a huge part of my life. I love food of all kinds, and to imagine living without the sense of taste is really impossible for me. The closest I've come to losing my sense of taste was actually this morning when I scalded my tongue and lip on hot lemon water. Uh, yeah, "ouch" doesn't even begin to describe that. My tongue felt numb after I spewed the hot liquid into the sink, and all day I've had trouble tasting my food.

The section about anosmia really opened my nostrils eyes to the fact that you can't have taste without smell. And if her book has taught me one other thing, it's that smell is pretty essential to my well-being and existence (ahem, mating pheromones  anyone?). The woman explaining her loss of smell wrote that, for example, if her house was burning down while she slept, she simply wouldn't know since she couldn't smell the smoke. She also wrote about dashing to restaurants when her taste and smell would randomly reappear--only to vanish again as they pulled into the parking lot.

The section made me reflect on experiences I've had with food and smell that would have never happened without those two senses, and it genuinely made me sad. We joke about not having a sixth sense... but some people don't even have all five. I know that the next time I eat my favorite meal (Pad Thai) or sniff my favorite scent (Miss Dior Chérie), I'm going to count my blessings, since I have all five senses. Maybe you should too.



I don't think I'll ever be an Ackerman in my writing. I can't compete with her moth-breathing, cow vagina-feeling self (if you haven't read the book, just don't question this...). To be honest, I'm not even going to try with that one.