Scent

Right before I went to have a sinus operation, my mother stayed with me in Seattle. Since my nose was going to be invaded by surgery, I had an idea: to walk around the neighborhood and comment only on the smells that could be experienced.

My mother and I are both visually oriented people so I thought it would make for an interesting time just discussing only the scents that were encountered on the edge of the city park.

We walked around in the summer warmth and breathed in and out deeply, savoring the smells. There were smells of perfume and of urine and of sweet flowers, of pine wood, of sweat, and of gasoline. Every few feet we encountered a zone with a new smell to comment on. We felt how it might be to be like a dog, focused on scent, and following the directions of these invisible streams of intense olfactory stimulation. It was a thoroughly excellent experience.