The sight and taste of sound

And here's where things get weird. I was talking to my daughter this morning, who told me that me playing the piano tasted like candy. Normally that'd be just one of those weird things kids say, that you would dismiss. She's four after all and it might mean nothing. But, one thing I've experienced all my life that I only recently realized was a tad abnormal (recent in relative terms - more like my 20s) was that I taste words and some sounds have a visual personality. So if she says it tastes like candy, I take that to mean it literally tastes like candy.

My doctor says my "condition" is probably related to my epilepsy. Apparently people with seizure disorders or brain abnormalities are more likely to have synesthesia. Though no one really knows what causes it. Scientists think it could be that those connections that are normally pared away in infancy - those that essentially combine most senses into a big blob until your brain learns to differentiate - may not necessarily have all been specialized in people with synesthesia, which wraps certain sensations into one big bag of sense-related fun.

Anyway, I don't mind if my daughter has synesthesia, but it worries me because anything that remotely suggests "brain anomaly" gives me the heebie jeebies, especially in my kids. That said, I wouldn't take away my own abnormalities for anything. It can be really pleasant.

Because I can't do things the easy way, the type of synesthesia I have is rare, or at least that's what my doctor says. Evidently lots of people have some type of synesthesia but it's usually more related to numbers having colors and personalities. I taste words and sounds and even see some sounds. Not all of them, but some of them have a really, really distinct flavor or sensation on my tongue.

For example, someone I used to work with had a voice that tasted of fresh cherries, especially when she said, "Solution." It was distracting enough I often communicated with her via instant message - there's nothing so off-putting at work as informing someone that you can't talk to them because their voice is just too delicious, bright and tart.

Or deeper, darker voices - like whoever played Scar in the Lion King, or Benjamin Cumberbatch when his character gets pissed. They taste like dark chocolate, disturbing at first, a jolt of bitter then smooth. There's nothing like watching TV, anticipating someone being pissed off. My husband tastes slightly like that, too.

Then there are the sounds that make pictures. The claaaack of castanets during Flamenco music - it's a big, fat, cartoonish black spider in a giant web, hair abdomen and all. Not scary, not ugly. It just is.

I'm not sure whether to wish that on my children or not. It definitely makes some of your experiences far, far richer, but it can be distracting, especially when watching horror movies. One thing about it is that you can literally feel your skin crawl sometimes if you read or hear something horrific enough. Reading the description of The Human Centipede put the taste of blood, antisceptic and filth in the back of my throat for almost two weeks afterwards, and makes my skin crawl even now. So, there you have it. This is just one more thing that makes me...me. And maybe my children themselves.