Communication really is key

For my ASL 6 class, I'm doing a presentation on Deaf education. I also "borrowed" this topic for my informative speech in Public Speaking class, and so recently I've been reading a ton about the history, culture, and language of the Deaf.

Currently I'm reading a book called A Journey into the DEAF-WORLD by Harlan Lane, Robert Hoffmeister, and Ben Bahan. This book is bringing up a lot issues to contemplate. One of the main challenges Deaf people face is the fact that approximately 90% of Deaf people are born to hearing parents. Hearing parents are often advised to go to speech therapy and audio-specialists, etc, but are never told to sign with their child. Because the Deaf children's parents don't sign with them, they miss out on the most crucial language-development years.

There is a lot of frustration from both the parents and the child, and I think I realized the reason behind the reason for this. Parents and child are frustrated because they can't communicate with each other; this is the obvious reason. But the heart of it, the reason behind the reason, is that communication is the key to relationship, and relationship is the key to every person's heart.

Without relationship, where would we be? People need to love and be loved, and to know that they are loved. Communication is the means to relationship. I guess that's all I wanted to share... love on someone today!

Deafness

I've been thinking a lot about deafness again, and the main concept I keep coming back to is what do we as the hearing world know about not hearing? Think of all the things that make noise. Typing on this computers. Clothes rustling as my arms move. The bed creaking when you lie down. Shoes walking down a hallway. Doors opening and closing. Chairs and couches sighing as you seat yourself. Curtains humming as you pull them open or shut. Swallowing.

All these things and more make noise that we hearing people take for granted. In the book Deaf in America, the point is made that when a fork falls off the table, a hearing person would pick it up because they heard the fork fall. A deaf person would pick it up because they could no longer see it on the table. The deaf don't associate a noise with the action. What are your thoughts, readers?

Torn

I've been contemplating a lot recently on God's view of deafness. For those of you who don't know me, or just didn't know this about me, I have been studying American Sign Language for about a year and a half at my college. These classes fulfill both my foreign language requirements and my cultural diversity requirement, because in the classes, students are taught about the Deaf culture as well as the language of the Deaf.

First of all, I must say that the Deaf culture has one view of deafness, and then there is another view that the Deaf dismiss. The first is the cultural Deafness, and this is where the capital D comes in: when someone is culturally Deaf, it means that they cannot hear and they are proud of their deafness {the physical non-ability to hear}, their sign language, and their culture.

The other perspective of deafness is the medical perspective, that there is something wrong with the ear or the nerves around the ear, and that something should be done in order to fix the individual's hearing so they can be normal. As you can see, the Deaf culture dismisses this medical view of deafness as an insult to the core of who they view themselves as! How offensive for someone to tell you that there is something WRONG with you, that you need to be FIXED!

My struggle as of late has been finding the Lord's perspective. I'm trying to leave the culture and the feelings and all the individuals' personal preferences out of this, and just hear Him. But at the same time, He loves all those individuals and made them perfectly how they are. What is "normal" anyhow? Who decides what normal is? Are we too insecure with ourselves that we feel so threatened when someone else is comfortable with their differences? Why does everything have to be uniform and the same? As you can see, I don't have all the answers. I haven't heard a voice from above saying that this way or that way is right. I don't know what His perspective is on deafness. All I know right now is that I need to keep seeking Him and His heart, and as I get closer to that, revelation will follow. If you have any thoughts, ideas, or resources, please post them below! Thanks.