Two Old Men, Each Hearing His Own Way

I have a Korean friend whom I have known for almost twenty years. He is 65 now and works as a lawyer for a bank.

He has one very charming habit:

He writes extremely long emails.

He tells me about everything — the disputes he is handling, family matters, his bank contract, books on meditation, Buddhism and philosophy that he is reading…

Basically, if something happens in his life, I get to hear about it.

He is very good at English, so he writes very fast.

I, on the other hand, always try to keep my replies as short as possible — just to avoid receiving another email that may be several thousand words long.

And yet, every time I reply, he comes back with words that make me feel rather embarrassed:

“You are the best!”

“You are angel from God.”

He he… I think:

Does he really have to exaggerate that much?

Today he wrote me another very long email.

This time, it was about his ear.

Last week, he suddenly lost hearing in his right ear. His wife took him to the emergency room at 11 p.m. The doctor started steroid treatment and also gave him an injection into the ear.

A few days later, he went on an easy trek with his wife. He met a friend who is a veterinarian. The friend walked on his right, and he tried using his right ear to listen.

Then he had an MRI. The machine made a very loud noise, but surprisingly, this time the noise sounded like music to him.

Fortunately, the result showed no serious damage. Both ears are working again, although he has had to turn up the volume on his iMac and his phones.

At this point, the story about his ear should have ended.

But Thomas is Thomas.

He moved on to… Buddhism.

He wrote that the Sixth Patriarch’s explanation of the Buddha’s teachings seemed to be slowly sinking into his consciousness.

Truth is not something we learn or understand intellectually.

The truth is already inside us from the moment we are born.

All we need to do is recognize it.

Open your eyes.

That’s all.

I read this part and had to laugh:

This guy has just started hearing again with his right ear, and now he is hearing all the way to the truth of the universe!

So I told him about my own ear.

I have been deaf in my right ear since I was a child because I injured my eardrum while cleaning my ear. Since then, I have only been able to hear with my left ear.

Now that I am getting older, my hearing has deteriorated a little more.

If someone speaks softly, there is not much I can do — especially if they are sitting on my right.

I also told him a joke.

If a beautiful girl were sitting on my right and whispered into my right ear:

“Do you love me?”

I would probably still nod and say:

“Yes!”

Even though I hadn’t heard a word.

I told him not to worry too much. We all lose some hearing as we get older. And if things get really bad, there are always hearing aids.

I just hope he won’t need one.

Thomas replied to my email almost immediately:

“You are angel from God.”

He he…

Two old men, two ears, each hearing in his own way!

 __ Mr. Old Man