Sensitive
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I bought an ultrasonic dog repeller.
It looks like a garage door opener remote control.
A red light lights up when the button is pressed.
My wife, whom I affectionately call Puddin, is terrified of
dogs. This device would make it easier for her to walk in the
neighborhood without worrying about dogs. If a dog comes close
to her, she points the device at them and presses the button.
The device emits an extremely high pitched and annoying sound
that humans can't hear, only dogs. It won't hurt the dog, but
sounds like a loud siren to dogs and the person can't hear it.
Ahhh, the power of technology. . .
We were leaving in the van with the kids as I opened the package.
I proudly showed my wife the device and explained how it worked.
I pressed the button to show her the light and to forever rid
her of her fear of dogs bothering her in the neighborhood.
"Oww!" she said, "that thing makes too much noise."
"You can't hear this, only dogs can. It just psychological that
you think you can hear it when you see the red light go on.
See, the kids didn't hear anything and neither did I," I said.
"But I can hear it, it makes a loud buzzing sound that hurts my
ears," Puddin insisted.
We argued back and forth, I was trying to tell Puddin that she
couldn't possibly hear it. The pitch was far too high for human
ears. Neither of the boys could hear it and I couldn't hear a
peep out of the device.
Being a scientist, I thought I would prove to Puddin once and
for all that it was all in her head that she could hear the
device. I took a sheet of paper and placed it over the device.
Puddin would not be able to see the light when it turned on.
No light, no seeing me press the button, no psychological
feeling of the buzzing, my point would be made.
I held the device under the paper and waited a considerable
time. Then while Puddin's mind had drifted to other things I
pressed the button.
"Oww!" Puddin hollered.
Puddin could hear the dog repeller!
What in the world?
This was not supposed to be but it was irrefutable proof that
she could hear what people were not supposed to hear.
That incident made me realize a phenomenon in the physical that
also exists in the mental and spiritual. Some people are simply
far more sensitive to some things.
It is always
interesting how a story that everyone else loves will strike one
person in a totally negative way. For various reasons, there will
be something that they are sensitive to that no one else can hear.
Jokes are especially prone to this more than any other.
When they read the same issue that everyone else loves,
"Oww!!!"
Life has taught me a lot about sensitivity.
There is much publicity about physical abuse. Battered wives
and children fill our news reports. Yet, there are areas more
sensitive than our flesh to abuse, the areas of emotions and
spirit. Words often hit harder than a fist.
We say things to others that we are not sensitive to, but they
hear with a loud pain. Often, it is something that we say in
fun, yet it knocks the wind out of the other person.
Like Puddin, you may not think they can hear a painful sound,
but the sound hurts. The difference with words is that the pain
doesn't stop when the words stop. It can echo within the soul
for years. Relationships between spouses, parents and children,
co-workers, even church folk, can be broken with a sound of
harsh words that the sensitive hears.
Before you lash out at someone, blindly criticize them, or talk
down to them, remember, they may hear in your words things that
you cannot.
They may sensitive, be careful when you press the button.