Pardon?

Tone and tenor is everything of course

reflecting meaning and perspective and

how what is said is meant to be taken.

Take the phrase 'I beg your pardon' and it 

could be a genuine apology and alternately

a demand for an apology. Tone in the sense

of aural sound bedevilled me as a child for

all too often it eluded me and caused a sense 

of deep embarrassment. That I was unable to 

hear the tone, tenor and place context in what 

was said be it a casual conversation or a vital 

piece of information left me feeling vulnerable

inadequate and wholly at fault. My mind would 

race to make sense of what I had heard/not heard

as I pillaged a mental workbox full of non-verbal

responses and facial contortions meant to convey 

that I had heard and so be it that I had not for 

these subterfuges never caught up with me

no betrayal of my ignorance of a communication 

ever resulted. Inconvenient as it was it somehow 

never struck me that I had a hearing disability 

though I knew I did and had no intention of 

revealing it. The seasoning of age has reduced 

embarrassment while increasing acceptance 

and urged upon me the recognition that there 

was nothing of any usefulness I missed since 

most people at the best of times have little of 

importance or intelligent interest to convey.