thoughts, words, deeds

at present, I apparently choose . . .

War Chest Wednesday! For the new kids in the back, these were future prompt ideas sent in by previous challengers. So, don't blame me, but feel free to take them in any direction you'd like.

Whispers, or screams?

The problem with either/or questions is that my first inclination is always to answer “yes” or “no” depending on the question and my mood and the phase of the moon and the orientation of the heavens and how much sugar I’ve had in the previous twenty-four hours.

Right now? I am more inclined to whisper than to scream. I’ve had a cough that began with a cold at the end of January and has lingered through now with a tickle at the back of my throat, and so when I consider screaming, I just know it will end in a coughing fit that will hurt my ribs and scrape my throat raw, and I’ve just regained enough of a voice to sing. It’s difficult to lead the music in church on a Sunday if you can’t sing. Or to teach a Sunday School class. Both of which I do.

So, for practical reasons, screaming is out. The thing is, whispering is not much better for your voice. After all, have you ever been in a laryngitis type situation where all you could do is whisper, unvoiced at that, just the air over your vocal chords and no real sound coming out? Well, that hurts. It makes my vocal issues last longer than they would have if I just shut my mouth and let sound pass me by. So, whispering hurts, too.

I do have some ASL. Not very much, of course, because I don’t have any deaf friends that I can talk to regularly (I used to when I lived in MD near DC, which is the reason I have some ASL, but that was a long time ago). You know, you can whisper and shout in ASL just like you can in a spoken language. After all, otherwise, how could you have an irrational argument with your sisters?

I do whisper sometimes, when my throat isn’t tickling like it is at the moment (I wish it would heal—cough drops and hot herbal teas for the past three weeks, so that I don’t cough and make it worse, over and over), although sometimes that can be louder than screaming. I mean, have you ever heard a five year old whisper? Somehow, whispering never involves the use of the inside voice without a specific mention by parent (or in my case, aunt) and so the thing the kid wanted to keep a secret gets shouted across the entire group of people.

I never scream on a rollercoaster or when I’m watching a scary movie (which I don’t do). I don’t know why. Vocal training, maybe. There’s nothing like a serious discussion about vocal nodes with pictures to make a person not want to experience that. Ever. Instead I laugh. Except when I’m ill, when anything, even laughter, sends me into a coughing fit the likes of which I don’t want to deal with ever again.

But, that was the long way around to say that at present, when asked: whispers or screams, I apparently choose coughing.