Tuesday, August 23, 2011

ASL- Dancing With Your Hands.

Yesterday I entered the world of College Classes. Community College Classes anyway.

My English Prof reminds me of my friend's father...he sounds exactly like him! This semester will be interesting listening to a professor who sounds like my friend's dad. He seems to be very fair and no-nonsense, but good natured.

My ASL class, which is almost 4 hours long, is going to be a challenge but completely enjoyable. We don't talk at all during class, except through signing and finger-spelling.
Being a dancer my whole life- ASL is just like dancing, but with your hands. Like in some forms of Indian dances (from India, not Native American) hand movements convey a message. It can take years to memorize all of the hand signals and signs. I can't help but feel like I'm learning a new sort of dance. I've always had good muscle memory, and I love putting movement to meaning. 
I like not speaking with my voice. Sometimes silence is a much more powerful tool than noise. Silence can  make a person go mad. It can help someone to calm down after being around too much noise. If you listen to the silence, sometimes you make believe you can hear things in it. Sometimes you do hear things you wouldn't normally hear if you were talking aloud or listening to music. I'm a writer and I don't often write with music on. I write better when I'm not listening to anything except whatever sounds nature is making. That's sometimes as close to silence as you can get.
God can speak to us in silence. I wonder, do deaf people have an easier time hearing God because they don't have the external noise?


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