Sens-itive

I have often randomly had the debate with myself of “if I had to lose one sense, which would suck the least to lose?” Obviously, touch would be crazy to lose, and sight and sound I would also be very incapacitating to lose, so that narrows it down to taste and smell (and the ability to see dead people).

Obviously, I would prefer to have all of my senses, but that’s not what this hypothetical scenario is, so there.

I actually think I would give up taste and keep smell, because I have a very good sense of smell and losing my scent memory would be very sad. Sometimes I’ll just be walking around random places and I’ll suddenly smell my kindergarten classroom, or my friend’s dorm air freshener from freshman year, or a family member I miss.

I have a bottle of my late grandma’s perfume, and while it’s not something I would wear, and not even something she wore for the last few years of her life, smelling it takes me back to the prime of our lives together, when she would get dolled up and let me sit at her vanity and play with her lipstick and we would go on vacations. Some of these memories might have faded if not for the scent memories that I associate with them, and losing that would be hard for me.

I’m also a big fan of perfume and candles, and I have a collection of both. People can definitely become more attractive just by smelling good, and a room that smells delicious when you walk into it is going to psychologically predispose you to have joy in that place. Now that I’m thinking of it, not being able to walk into my parents’ house at Christmastime and smell Fraser fir wouldn’t feel like the holidays to me.

Also, my sort of cheat-y loophole is that a large portion of taste for food comes from scent (which is why you plug your nose when you take medicine), so I don’t really think the experience of eating would be terribly diminished, and if I were going by texture instead of taste, I would definitely be sad not to have the flavors but maybe there could sort of be the sensation with the scent.

In conclusion, taste is the least useful sense to me, but for now I’m going to keep my tastebuds in case something comes up. Peace.

Thanks for reading!

Holly