Sometimes you have a moment in your life when you realize you have been taking something important for granted, after getting a wake up call that it can be swept away quite easily.
A couple weeks ago I had a balloon sinuplasty done by my Ear, Nose & Throat specialist. It took me a couple days to recognize changes that happened after the procedure. If you’ve ever had surgery then you probably know, you are extremely tired the first day because of the anesthesia, and then you’re usually prescribed heavy duty pain pills afterwords. So the result usually is a couple days you can’t easily remember.
Let me get to the point as quick as possible. It suddenly occurred to me that I had no sense of smell. I couldn’t smell my shaving soaps, my colognes, my food, my wife’s wavy hair, nothing.
Not to minimize the importance of smelling everything else in life, but for the sake of the fact that this is a shaving forum, I couldn’t smell a single shaving soap or aftershave. Think about that for a moment. I have over 70 shaving soaps, at least 40 aftershaves. For 8 days I couldn’t smell a single one of them. Admittedly there was a short moment of panic, where I was legitimately terrified this might be permanent. But my doctor insisted this was normal and that my sense of smell was coming back, and eventually it did.
But for a short moment in time, It rendered all my shaving soaps, and the hobby that revolves around them, practically useless. At least from a scent perspective. Imagine walking into your shave den one day and every single soap is basically Murphy & McNeil Nil. I’ve invested all this time and thought and money into scentless shaving soap. Something was missing and I’m here to tell you folks, it’s not funny... [emoji23] Okay maybe it’s just a little funny, from an irony perspective.
I suppose the point of this journal is to say this. Step outside of yourself for a moment once in a while and make yourself identify the little things in life that are great. Do not take them for granted. When I got my smell back, the first shaving soap I grabbed was my Through The Fire Z28. That orange zest smelled so much more really than it ever did before. The scent was stronger, richer, better. Why? I think it was because I wasn’t paying attention. Same thing for every other smell. I was like a kid in a candy store running around the house smelling everything. Sometimes we just need a reminder that life could always be worse.
A couple weeks ago I had a balloon sinuplasty done by my Ear, Nose & Throat specialist. It took me a couple days to recognize changes that happened after the procedure. If you’ve ever had surgery then you probably know, you are extremely tired the first day because of the anesthesia, and then you’re usually prescribed heavy duty pain pills afterwords. So the result usually is a couple days you can’t easily remember.
Let me get to the point as quick as possible. It suddenly occurred to me that I had no sense of smell. I couldn’t smell my shaving soaps, my colognes, my food, my wife’s wavy hair, nothing.
Not to minimize the importance of smelling everything else in life, but for the sake of the fact that this is a shaving forum, I couldn’t smell a single shaving soap or aftershave. Think about that for a moment. I have over 70 shaving soaps, at least 40 aftershaves. For 8 days I couldn’t smell a single one of them. Admittedly there was a short moment of panic, where I was legitimately terrified this might be permanent. But my doctor insisted this was normal and that my sense of smell was coming back, and eventually it did.
But for a short moment in time, It rendered all my shaving soaps, and the hobby that revolves around them, practically useless. At least from a scent perspective. Imagine walking into your shave den one day and every single soap is basically Murphy & McNeil Nil. I’ve invested all this time and thought and money into scentless shaving soap. Something was missing and I’m here to tell you folks, it’s not funny... [emoji23] Okay maybe it’s just a little funny, from an irony perspective.
I suppose the point of this journal is to say this. Step outside of yourself for a moment once in a while and make yourself identify the little things in life that are great. Do not take them for granted. When I got my smell back, the first shaving soap I grabbed was my Through The Fire Z28. That orange zest smelled so much more really than it ever did before. The scent was stronger, richer, better. Why? I think it was because I wasn’t paying attention. Same thing for every other smell. I was like a kid in a candy store running around the house smelling everything. Sometimes we just need a reminder that life could always be worse.
