Helen Keller, Anosmia, Perfume, and what I learned

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A woman with full dark hair and wearing a long dark dress, her face in partial profile, sits in a simple wooden chair. A locket hangs from a slender chain around her neck; in her hands is a magnolia, its large white flower surrounded by dark leaves.


While Reading the First Chapter of NHS, I learned/realized a lot while flipping through the pages. The first that really stood out was just how little things had actually changed between back then and now. Specifically in regards to how we feel sensations and how they play a major role in our lives in ways that were barely aware of. I never really considered it before but whether it be 50, 60, or hundreds of years ago, people may have acted differently then we do now but almost all of them still feel the same sensations we do in regards to 5 senses and using them as a means to enjoy food or smell pleasant Aromas. Some also believed that certain nice smelling items could be used like aphrodisiacs which may seem ridiculous...until you remember we still have ads today about tons of people falling in love upon first sniff in all these perfume and body spray ads. This chapter actually got me to remember this one ad in particular for axe body spray that came out a loooong time ago where 1 guy at the beach is just totally surrounded by attractive women in bikinis who all want a piece of him before the camera hard cuts to a can of axe. Just looked it up, the tag line was "Spray more, Get more". We've really come a long way.

Anyways Back to the book. I actually didn't know much of anything about Helen Keller outside of the fact she was both blind and death. So to read about all these experiences she was having by just feeling her surroundings and eating her food just sounded really interesting to me considering her entire situation. I actually want to know more about her and her experiences now after reading this because it sound like she led a very fascinating life. 

I also learned a little bit about Anosmia and how absolutely terrible it could be. Out of all my senses, losing my sense of smell or even taste didn't seem like a big deal in comparison sight or tough. But now I think I'd have to reconsider that after hearing about some of the people suffering from it. There experiences really drove home how essential it is to be able to properly smell your surroundings or at the very least just be allowed to enjoy your meals. This book was written a long time ago so i'm sure there's more treatments for it but I just can't help but think about the amount of people still being affected by it to this day.

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