The Five Senses

July 15, 2008: As I drove to work yesterday, I had the idea to write about the ride to/from work from the perspective of each of the five senses. I describe (and experience) the ride as ‘sensory overload’ again and again each day, so I thought it would be interesting to break it down and describe it through the five different ways to create a full picture. Today in the morning I wrote down everything I heard, and on the way home I wrote down everything I smelled. It was a great experience to turn off everything except my ears. And on the way home, I was tuned in only to every inhale, which I drew intentionally through my waiting olfactory system. There is one corner 4 blocks from our apartment where I literally take a huge breath as we make the turn, and let my breath out in a slow, steady stream until we are past the stretch of road that smells so strong and so bad that if I inhale too quickly it feels like I've eaten sewage.

I’m not sure I’ll get the observations written tonight, but I’m going to post this introduction to the project to give you a ‘sense’ of things to come. (I know, bad joke).