Sobriety. It's interesting. Waking awake. Hearing my own thoughts in clear stereo, overlaid with ongoing revelations and realizations. Complicated yet simple. Motion pictures of emotions sensed in multiple layers of resonance. Did you know you can 'hear' music through your teeth? It's true, we learned, we experienced, at the Exploratorium this weekend. There's an interactive display with speakers wired through a narrow rod: you slide a plastic straw over the rod, put earphones on to block out ambient sounds from the crowd, grasp the rod between your clenched teeth, and voila! music can be heard via the bones in your head transferred from your teeth.
What else have I been missing?
Did you know you can almost drown in your sleep? And that if your cat is astute, he will wake you before you suffocate? Were you suffocating in your sleep and so he woke you, or were you drowning in your dream because you were in actuality suffocating because your cat insists on sleeping as near to your face as possible? Did he save you, or was he the cause?
These are the thoughts of the sober. I can't remember the thoughts of the inebriated. The thoughts of the sober are confusing enough for both of us.
After hearing music with my teeth, I began to wonder what I've been missing with the rest of my body. Can I see color with my toes? What if I could? Would I wear open-toed shoes? Wear toenail polish? Trim my toenails? Sand my callouses with more pumice? Place the soles of my feet against the Van Gogh? Would I dance in red or blue?
What if, like some other species, we had antennae that could not only collect information, but send messages as well? Would you have antennae if that were the case? Would you want to collect and send information via wavering appendages on your skull? Perhaps we do already, though it seems strange to consider. Are our mouths not strange enough as it is?
Lips, teeth, tongues: the conveyors, the purveyors of meaning, of emotion, of intention. Do not our mucous membranes absorb chemicals, and hence our brains transform simple compounds into pure pleasure: brown gravy, chocolate caramel cream sauce, merlot reduction.
When you listen to my words, do you watch my eyes? or my mouth?
When you clench your teeth, what do you hear?
What is the sound of one jaw dropping?
Photo courtesy: Bright Sides on Flickr: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3512/3224830310_51d592ccec.jpg
