Hearing a Sunset

Often, we mistakenly assume that information or inspiration comes into our lives via only one of our five senses.  One might think that a culinary masterpiece created by a renowned chef could only be perceived through our sense of taste.  This overlooks the fact that master chefs can create not only a memorable experience for our taste buds but for our sense of smell and sight as well.

 Those who assume movies and television to be a visual medium are not familiar with the work that my colleagues and I have done for over 30 years at Narrative Television Network.  Here at NTN, we take movies or TV shows and add an extra soundtrack, which is the voice of a narrator, inserted between the existing dialogue.  This narrator describes the action, settings, and other visual elements of the program.  For the 13 million blind and visually impaired Americans we serve—and countless more around the world—onscreen entertainment or education can become a hearing experience.  

 For years, people assumed that books, newspapers, and periodicals were a visual medium.  Today it is customary to listen to audiobooks and to get digital audio versions of newspapers and magazines.  

 I began losing my sight as a teenager, and at that point, my mother encouraged me to use music as a way to capture visual memories that I would lose as my blindness progressed.  As too often happens during our teenage years, I thought my mom was ridiculous, but as my sight faded, I took her suggestions to heart.   We all have certain sights that imprint themselves in the memory banks of our minds.  I remember seeing a sunset over the ocean off the coast of Montego Bay, Jamaica.  I wanted to capture that image forever so I wrote a song simply entitled, Sunset.

 Years later, I played it for my talented colleague Kelly Morrison.  Kelly is a gifted singer and songwriter who has written and produced music for all of the films based on my novels.  She was intrigued by my Sunset song and encouraged me to record it for one of her albums.  I wanted to share it with you. https://soundcloud.com/kellymorrison/sunset  The voice over you hear at the beginning of the song is Kelly, and the rest is my memory of that sunset in the Caribbean many years ago.  I hope you enjoy it and find ways to capture and memorialize the great sights, sounds, and experiences in your life.

As you go through your day today, don’t forget to smell the roses and listen to the sunset.

 Today’s the day!