Aroma, Scent, Smell – What Fools these children be….

 Yesterday I read a tidbit in Real Simple Magazine. It said that according to research by McCann Worldgroup 53% of 16 to 22-year-olds around the world would rather give up their sense of smell than their favorite personal technology device. It took a minute or two for that to sink it. I could argue about their sample size and what countries they surveyed to argue against this but that is beside the point.The point is that our children have been deprived of their senses, especially smell, so much so that they are not even aware of the importance of some of them.

“Our sense of smell is 10,000 times more sensitive than any other of our senses and recognition of smell is immediate.” (von Have, Serene Aromatherapy).

Our children grow up in these sterile environments in well lit rooms filled with electronic gadgets to distract their attention. Many are rarely outside surrounded by the smells of nature. Smell has the ability to achieve instant memory recall. When I smell the rich, thick, earthy aroma of rotting organic matter, I am instantly transported back to the woods of my childhood. My mind goes back to the rich soil under my feet and in my fingernails from hours spent exploring the woods behind my neighbors house. Just after the lawn is mowed and a gentle rain falls, again, I am transported back in my mind to days of my childhood. The sweet smell of grass mingling with the crisp scent of the falling rain. Would I give this up for an iPhone? Are you crazy?

I remember as a child standing in the front hall closet and smelling my Dad’s khaki work jacket. It was infused with the scent of tobacco and my father’s unique earthiness from a day of construction work. I used to hold the jacket up to my face and just breathe it in. My father is gone but I could bring him back in an instant with that mix of smells. As any of you know who have lost a loved one, some of the most treasured things you have in the weeks following the loss are not golden lockets or even photographs, they are the old shirt, the pillow, the blanket they last used. We close our eyes and hold them close and evoke the full sense of “knowing” our loved one is still there with us. I remember when my Dad’s T-shirt, I had saved after he died, was washed by accident and the scent was no longer there. I was heart broken. Nothing can recreate that. Would I give this up for a Computer? No way.

Every time I smell fresh bread cooking it takes me back to the time Lindsay and I lived in the little house in Dallas around the corner from the Mrs. Baird’s Bread Factory. I remember what my life was like then, sitting in the backyard watching Lindsay frolic around shirtless in the sprinkler while the smell of bread floated over the fence. I remember the way she smelled as a little girl – her clothes,her hair, her skin. I wish I had that in a bottle. Would I trade that for an iPad? Not on your life.

There are so many smells that evoke a great sense of pleasure or a memory for me – the leaves of a tomato plant, dirt, my mother’s perfume, Vick’s vapor rub, strawberries, peaches, cookies baking, pine needles, gardenias, peonies, baby soap, bourbon, wine……

My husband is losing his sense of smell. Its one of the early signs of Parkinson’s. Its also an early indicator for Alzheimer’s. Without a sense of smell I imagine it makes it even harder for a person losing their memory to recall things. It goes slowly at first, without notice.

The sense of smell is oh so important. Teach your children to appreciate it. Renew your own appreciation for it. Stop and smell the roses and/or the dirt. Never consider trading this critically important gift for an electronic gadget. Blasphemy!

When nothing else subsists from the past, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scatter
the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls
bearing resiliently, on tiny and almost impalpable drops of their essence, the immense edifice of memory.
— Marcel Proust “The Remembrance of Things Past”