Think about the last time you really felt either your own ears, or someone elses. People rarely pay attention to ears as long as they are in relative proportion to someone's head and working well (unlike mine. I was diagnosed with a middle ear infection last week that had spread to my sinuses. Antibiotics seem to be clearing things up). Those with pierced ears might think about them as they reach up to slide a hoop or a stud through the hole in their earlobe.
Maybe it's just me.
Maybe I just don't think about ears very much.
Zac has very soft, flexible ears. I've gotten used to him pulling the tops of his ear lobes down around his chin, grinning all the while. He can contort his ears into shapes I've never seen before and never want to see again. His ears are apparently made out of one part skin, two parts Silly Putty.
Well, on Saturday, I went out with DJ and we ended up watching television on my couch after dinner and drinks. I was running my fingers through his hair when I hit his ear. I say hit because my hand practically stopped. His ears were hard as rocks. I tried to discretely feel my own ears to see if he was a freak or if I was for not knowing that adult ears feel like that. My internal censor had apparently taken the night off after the fourth beer so I blurted out, "You have really hard ears." He gave me a quizzical expression and put both of his hand up to his ears to feel. He looked at me and said, "No one has ever told me that I have hard ears before." He might have seen me blush if there had been more lights on.
Then I realized, it's not that his ears are harder than normal, it's that the only contact with ears I've had in the past year is with my son's, whose ears are as flexible as every other part his body.
And, you know what? I like Zac's ears better. Adult ears feel weird. I like that when I go to kiss Zac's cheek that I can rub up against his ear and not get bruised. I like that when I kiss him on the cheek he smiles like he's just won the lottery.
So that is how my date went. I learned about ears.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I read your entry at lunch today, and then went to class where my prof asked for us to identify three of our individual strengths. One woman in my class described her strength as being able to wiggle her ears. And then she did. It freaked me out, especially 'cause all I could think about was, I wonder if HER ears are hard?
You should have asked to feel them, simply for the sake of science, of course!
Post a Comment