HAWMC #4: Why I Write About Health; Dichotic Listening

Today's prompt is to free write for fifteen minutes on why I write about health.
First of all, I want you to try an experiment. This is something I'm having my Linguistics class do next week as part of our Psycholinguistics unit. Bear with me--I'll explain why this is relevant in a moment, and it's really interesting.
Go to this site: http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/schuh/lx001/Dichotic/dichotic.html and get yourself a pair of stereo headphones. Click to play the test. Ten pairs of words will be played, one word into each ear. For each, you should type in the numbered box what word you hear. When you've done all ten, you can click through to see what the pairs of words were. Why are you doing this? Because our brain/body wiring is contralateral, which means that stimuli on the left side of the body (including the head and ears) get processed on the right side of the brain, and vice versa. For most people, the areas responsible for language processing are located in the left hemisphere of the brain, so most people will hear the word played into their right ear, because stimuli to the right ear are processed directly in the left hemisphere, whereas stimuli to the left ear will go to the right hemisphere, and then need to be sent to the language areas in the left hemisphere for processing--slower than the right ear's direct path.


That's the theory. Now, why am I talking about this and what does it have to do with writing about health? Well, as I shared a month or two ago, I'm left-handed, but have some hearing loss in my left ear. I can never tell where a sound is coming from: it always sounds like it's on the right! So I thought that I wouldn't be a good tester for brain hemispheres because inevitably I'd only hear the word in the right ear. Well, I took the test. It turned out I slightly misheard some words, but that every single word I wrote down was (sometimes a slightly misheard version of) the input to the left ear! In other words, even with a hearing impairment, I still process linguistic input more quickly from the left side than from the right, which indicates that unlike 90% of the population, my language centers are in the Right hemisphere of my brain!


This is why I write about health. Not because my left brain (that everyone needs to get out of, supposedly) is actually my right brain, but because of the unexpected pieces we learn about ourselves, about how our bodies and brains work, if we're constantly engaged and interested in understanding it better. The fact that even a hearing-impaired ear still hears language and sends it to the brain gives me hope that no matter how damaged we are, we can still find ways to make the most important connections.


A dear friend recently said to me that creating art from pain is one of the noblest things a person can do. I love this, as there's definitely a debate within creative writing about how much the writer's personal experience should impinge upon the art of their work. The best art shouldn't be just therapeutic catharsis or woe-is-me breast-beating: it should integrate into the world in a way others can relate to. I have my secrets, like anyone, but I tend to be a very open person--throughout my adult life, various friends have commented that I'm sort of childlike in my willingness to discuss anything and everything.


When it comes to serious health challenges and diagnoses that carry potential stigma, I've been more cautious about "revealing all." However, many of my poems of late have dealt with those issues, including the poem that recently won a prize. The fact that poem had success validates for me that writing about health and health challenges in an artistic way can be a valuable form of art to make. The fact that poem may have inspired someone else in my writers' group to write about her mother's similar issues is even more important. I'm also working on an essay that's more directly dealing with specifics of health challenges, stigma-bearing diagnoses, and the process of coming to terms with them. I've found myself shy of reading the more "personal" aspects at my writers' groups, and yet I am compelled to write the essay, so at some point I'll have to read it aloud too. 


I am compelled to write it, in part, because I have some hope that it may help someone else at some point. I should also acknowledge my dad (whose birthday it is today) for a role in why I write about health. When I was almost dead, at my lowest weight, I went back and stayed with my parents for a few weeks. He said to me at one point, "If you survive this, you will have so much experience and wisdom with which to help other people." I don't know about the "wisdom" part, but I definitely have experience! And the best way I know of to help other people is through my writing.

Why do YOU write about health?