This is a question I was asked today, and it just struck me as strange.
I don't often pay attention to the random questions that my friends come up with, but for once, we asked a serious question and I am puzzling at it still.

If you absolutely had to choose one, would you be deaf, blind, or mute?

Now...if anyone can answer that question truthfully in the first two seconds of reading it, then I can bet you haven't thought about what it would mean.
Then again, perhaps it is easier than I am making it, right?

The first one is deaf.
To not hear anything.
I don't think I could do this one.
To never hear music again would kill me inside.
To never hear the birds outside the window, or the kids I babysit laugh, or even a car horn blaring to remind me how the world actually is.
I don't think I could be deaf and live without going insane.
To miss so much in this world would be torturous.

The second is blind.
To not see anything.
I don't think I could do this either.
I guess today I found that I am not as strong as I thought I was.
To never see the changing of the seasons.
To never see the rain that I can hear against my window.
To never see the smile on my love's face, or the first steps of any children I have one day, and to never see myself in the mirror.
I don't think I could be blind either.
Again, I would miss a part of the world I am so used to.

The last, is mute.
To not speak.
This third one doesn't really appeal either.
To never be able to sing again.
To never be able to express myself in words without a paper and pen in my hand.
To never hum along with a song on the radio, or teach my future children how to speak, or recite my vows when I get married.
It drives me crazy to say this, but I don't think I could be mute either.
This world...I am too attached to every sense I have.

So, I guess in asking this question, I didn't really answer it myself.
If any of them, I would choose mute.
It sounds crazy, but it seems to be the one I could live with most, even if it would hurt to go day to day without my voice.

Discussion:
How would you answer that question? Mute? Deaf? Blind?
People you have met with these problems?
Anything else that comes to mind when you read this?

I'd go mute.
Nobody could call you a loudmouth for starters :3

Plus you gotta have site, see the world... see where you are going
And with hearing, you're likely to get hit by a bus coming around a sharp corner coz you couldn't hear it.
Ya know, the little things count.

And I would get myself enough money with the other senses that I have to hire a personal speaker.
Who would say what I needed to xP

Mute..
Only because then and only then would you ever not have to express yourself vocally. Never having to say how you feel (even though being bottled up isnt any good at all); at the same time it would be halariouse seeing everyone trying their damn'dest to make you talk.
I can't sing for crap so "singing" doesnt apply to me, the only thing I would feel bad about losing is: The ability to say ;I love you;

do we have to choose?seriously i think if i dont have those capabilities i might not be able to enjoy my life as much as now

• I'd rather be mute. I don't talk much as it is anyways, not by word anyways. :lol:
  
  I don't think I'd ever manage being blind, I enjoy seeing spectacular sights and reading, I love reading and seeing how the words are used.. I don't think I could get used to the braille it wouldn't be the same but then that's me...
  
  And deaf well.. I love my music and I'm a great listener, so in turn I love being able to hear things. And being deaf I'd be also mute to an extent....
  
  I dunno that's my perspective on it. I really respect the people who have these disabilities though because it must be awkward having to do things differently than we ourselves are used to. I used to try learn signlanguage .. but for some reason I had stopped.. I should take it up again at some time.

Wow. I considered all that stuff, and I'd rather be a mute. If I was blind, I wouldn't be able to do all the stuff that you just said, if I was deaf, I wouldn't be able to listen to music, and music is actually a big part of my life, and deaf people often cant speak properly anyway.

So yeah, I guess I would rather be a mute. I hear that if you're a mute because you've experienced a lot of trama, you could go and see some kind of councellor person :3

I would be mute (I mean if I had to choose =P)

I would never want to not hear things like music or other people speaking, or even the funny whiny noise my dog makes when she isnt getting her own way.
I couldnt be blind either, I love to draw too much, I spend a great deal of time online which I would lose and I'd never be able to see any of the things that bring me joy

That's a very difficuly question and I have to admit I've thought about it before without being able to find an answer. I'm not sure what I'd chose, but I think that if any of these would occur, I'd try to adapt to the cirumstances as best as I could.
I don't think I know enough about what it is to live with either one of these disabilities to make a decision, and even if I did I don't think I could make a decision based on that. If you have had all three of these senses, it would be very dificult to take any of those away without a feeling of great loss.
Though, if I lost my sense of touch or smell I don't know if I'd be able to cope.

If I could find a way around it with surgery, I would choose to be deaf then have it fixed or be blind and have it be fixed too.

If not, I'd be mute.

I would have to choose to be mute... I'd hate it because I've become attached to the fact that I have a strong public speaking/ debating voice, as well as a soothing/ calming voice. However compared to the alternatives I'd have to say mute.

I always thought i would be mute if ever in this situation, but it would make my life quite difficult, i realised after having loss of voice for a while. At the same time i wouldn't want to loose either my hearing or sight. I guess it would have to be mute, considering you can learn to talk using some other part of your throat, i can't recall which.

I absolutely love to talk, and I would probably be a hazard to myself if I couldn't hear or see.. so even though I would never be the same I would have to choose being mute.

You can always learn sign language to talk instead... but not being able to see or hear would be too difficult for me.

I feel pretty much the same as everyone else - I'd become mute.

There are other ways to communicate. Once you begin to rely on your voice too much, you lose the simplicity of body language, or the act of writing letters. I have participated in many days of silence before, in support of a few different organizations, and I've never found them very difficult. Perhaps being quiet just comes naturally to me.

Deaf, seeing as I have already taken ASL classes and such. I've already experienced music and things, and also can read lips to an okay-ish stature. ^.^

• Going mute isn't quite the thing for me. I love making people laugh by telling jokes or just acting weird, and the sound of laughing people makes my heart skip a beat.
  
  But I would freak out if I were blind since I'm afraid of things I can't see. Let stand alone I can't see anything at all. Due to my imagination, I always get these horror scenarios in my head.. with monsters and such.
  
  So.. I think I'll choose mute.
  I'll be able to let people laugh and hear them, and I can see them too.
  
  By the way, if you go deaf.. you'll lose the ability of correct speaking too right? If you can't hear what you say, you'll pronounce things the wrong way..

I would far rather be deaf than mute or blind.

I'm sort of going deaf as it is, so I don't mind it.

I am learning sign language so I'm fine, and my mother, sister, and grandmother know some of it, so it's not too big of a deal. And even though music is important to me, I can live without it.

I wouldn't choose to be blind since I use my eyes for everything. Most of what I do is visually-based. And with being mute, I just don't think that I could do it; being able to hear yet not being able to speak.

• At first I thought this was going to be a question I couldn't answer. Because the first two are two things I am scared of losing.
  
  I can't go blind. To never see or produce art...to never see faces of loved ones...to never enjoy a natural sight again...those would seriously break my heart. I'm actually really worried about this one because my eyesight keeps getting worse. My dad is blind in one eye, and I do believe I already have worse sight than him in his functioning eye. :(
  
  I can't go deaf. I love listening to music. I don't go a day without listening to hours of songs. Also, one of my best traits with people is being a good listener. If you ever need a rant period, I'm the perfect person to go to. I will listen to anything.
  
  So that leaves being mute. As much as I like to help people out by talking and as much as I like expressing myself through acting, I would be so sad being without sight or hearing...

I can't decide between deaf and mute. If I had to I think maybe mute, as I'd miss music too much if I couldn't hear and I'm not that much of a talker.

I'd never choose blindness. I seriously would have to kill myself if I went blind. I always remember in my last job we had to go on a course and for some reason they split us into pairs, one of us had to wear a blindfold and the other had to guide us around for 45 minutes. We were in an office block we'd never been in before, we had to go up and down in the elevator and go around different floor and have conversations with people we couldn't see and we didn't know. It was so scary. I just felt so alone, even though I had someone holding my arm and guiding me. I couldn't last the whole 45 minutes, so I have no chance of lasting a lifetime without sight.

At first, I was thinking of being blind...but then after I thought about it, I would say mute. If I was mute, I could still listen to people, see people, and write down what I want to say on a piece of paper. :]

How would you answer that question? Mute? Deaf? Blind?
Mute..
People you have met with these problems?
Yes I have.. ;-;
Anything else that comes to mind when you read this?
I get really sad..because I feel so bad for those people who have these disabilities. It's even worse when they're born like that. >.<;;

Mute. I could always communicate via sign language or an electronic speech device, or just plain old writing, but being blind or deaf would mean having a whole realm of experience denied to me. I love reading, I love music, but I could go without speaking, especially if I could communicate via other methods.

Being blind is BY FAR THE WORST for me.
I could live being deaf, I love silence anyhow, same goes for being mute.

But I would rather be dead then blind. And blindness is something I might be facing in 10-20 years from now, my eyes are severely damaged... I am really worried about that and spend a lot time thinking about it.

Mute, I can live without talking, there's always writing things down on paper, unless you're referring to being born mute then there's sign language.

I would be blind. There are so many things out there to help blind people. In my college there is actually a whole program for it to help those students be able to go to college. Its really fancinating. Plus even though I wouldn't be able to see the world around me, other senese such as hearing would be a little more enhanced so I would be able to hear, feel, and smell a little better to make up for it.

I would say mule since i don't talk much any ways and if I was blind I wouldn' be able to see anythin and i like to see, my computer, my books and computergames I wanna see the world so being bind just wouldn't work for me lol. And if I was deaf I wouldn't be able to listen to music or the tv i'd have to read it all.
And being mute would give me an excuse to not talk lol.