230301 What's that smell?
The chanterelle has a flowery fragrance, which is one of the ways you identify it!
The smell of coffee can take me back to being five, visiting my Aunt Jean and Uncle Roland in England, the hardwood staircase that faced the front door. I am sometimes transported, by a smell on the wind, to another place and time, so real and tangible as to be almost hallucinogenic: a hillside in Japan, a morning on a Caribbean island, or the shores of my childhood. That is how powerfully our sense of smell is present in our minds.
I am the one in the house to whom everyone comes and says, "Does this smell okay to you?", for mold, or freshness. I am the one who always says, "I smell gas." And, although I may be the only one, I call the gas company, and yes - there is always something wrong. My position is actually changing as I age into "senior" status, as my children age into adults with the same intelligent nose.
It is interesting that our modern culture seems to shunt smell to the sidelines, distracting it, dissing it too, with artificial smells, with perfumed body care products, laundry and dish soaps, even toys. We use air fresheners even in our cars, but more dangerously, in our homes, along with smelly candles, sticks and plug-ins! I sometimes wonder how others tolerate all those commercially concocted smells. At #48 we are a perfume-free household. It is fortunate perhaps that we are aligned in this preference. Tamar and I are both hypersensitive to any scent; her nose is as keen as mine is. The rest of the family does not complain that there are no scented things. I used to consider myself to be "allergic" to most perfumes because I cannot tolerate them: from air freshener to laundry soap, from tiny-bottle perfume to hand soap! Now I am not so sure it is an allergy. It astounds me that companies feel the need to make everything smell of something that it isn't.
It has been frustrating and isolating to "suffer" this aversion. It is embarrassing to try to explain it to others. Unlike a "normal" allergy, it doesn't make me sneeze, or break out in a rash. It does distract me to the point of being unable to think! Like a blaring noise or blinding light, it interferes with my ability to focus on anything. Rain suffers in the same way, it's like a pervasive white noise short-circuiting one's mind. I have had to change subway cars, leave a room, change my clothes after an outing, change my baby's clothes, after a perfumed visitor has been holding her. I only recently figured out why perfumed laundry soap is such a powerful scent that it can reach across room at a party, These products are advertised as leaving the linens still smelling "forest-fresh" after TWO WEEKS - so they must be made with something that preserves the smell.
I am grateful that I have a good sense of smell. It adds a delightful dimension to experiences: the smell of someone's skin, the friendly smell of the dog, the smell of a morning, when the sun is just warming the earth, the different smells that rain can have. It aids in cooking, as well, since smell is bound up with taste. We take for granted our memory of smells, that we recognize a smell even if we have not often encountered it, that it is part of our life memories.
I have trusted my nose. There was tuna toast in Bali, which I quietly suggested to my friends was not safe, and which I did not eat, but the others were ill afterwards. We were also, on our travels, once served eggs cooked in rancid coconut oil, which tasted terrible though no one got sick. There was the day, here in Etobicoke, when a gas explosion happened, and I immediately evacuated the family. We found out later that the whole neighborhood had been evacuated. We were met by police as we returned home, to say we should wait for someone official to check our house for fumes before we entered. I can smell wiring burning, anything burning, and I am the first to notice the ghastly smell of something dead, even a tiny mouse.
Hand in hand, it might be, with a sensitive nose, is the urge to open windows. I have called myself a fresh-air freak, with my penchant for opening windows in all seasons. Perhaps this is an unrelated thing, but I feel sometimes that I am not getting enough oxygen or that the air is "stale". Our bedroom window is open day and night. I am particularly afflicted on an airplane, if the flight is longer than three hours; I become almost claustrophobic in my distraction.
I am so aware of a dog's perception of the world - an over-painting of the visual and aural world, with smells: imagine a second visual field - that you can smell (see) the trail of a fox who went by yesterday, and, "painted" all around, the smells of every being who has passed, every plant that is breathing, and on the wind, awareness like another ear, catching the "smell-sound" of a distant tractor and the cars on the highway.
It is a writer's misfortune, maybe, to see an article published on the very theme upon which she is working! This showed up on my facebook feed - [One wonders how anachronistic that will sound in thirty years.] - an article from BigThink about smell and navigation having a brain connection. * But of course it makes perfect sense! (Haha, another sense!) It is how Fig knew the way to Rain's farm two kilometres away without ever having walked there, but only driven in a car. Rain's car would have come and gone along the road, as well. I let Fig lead the way and I walked right past her place, but Fig turned back and headed up her driveway. Animals' sense of smell is their main navigational tool! It leads them to fresh water and food, and back to home and family.
We are ignoring, too, the social, interpersonal impact of pheromones. Our personal smells are designed to aid us in social situations, attracting us to a potential mate, helping us to bond with each other, with our children. If we have masked our true scents with shampoo, body wash, deodorant, face cream, hand soap, hand cream, shaving cream, body spray, body powder, sunscreen, actual all-by-itself perfume, hair spray, lipstick (yes, can't you taste the fragrance?), face powder, blush, mascara, toothpaste, mouthwash, breath mint, laundry soap and softener, how do our social pheromones have a chance? Do you have a baby in the family? Check the diaper bag or baby's room for smelly things. Clothes, wipes, powder, lotions and creams, soap, shampoo, even some toys may be scented. If something is scented to mask an malodorous ingredient, is that ingredient okay to use?
Is it not preferable to breathe clean air filled with the healthy smells of the food that is cooking, the sun-warmed breeze coming in the window, freshly washed clothes with a true fragrance of clean cotton rather than the chemical concoction brewed up by the manufacturers of soap? And to smell the delightful, tiny, baby-foot smell of your infant's toes?
There are safe, natural perfumes which are sometimes used in products, and which we can use at home. I used to put a small pot of apple juice and cinnamon sticks to simmer on the stove when company was expected, and of course there is coffee. Sometimes the lemon fragrance in products is natural - sourced from actual lemons - and I am often able to use those products. Sage, juniper and cedar smudges make a nice air-cleansing smell, as well as being a spiritual ritual tool. Mind you, there are particulates in the smoke as harmful in their own way as the chemicals released by artificial air fresheners. A bouquet of fresh flowers releases its scent into the air. Unfortunately, I, myself, cannot tolerate even the scent of some fresh flowers, so I am leery of picking and bringing home flowers. I love to smell them on the bush, but I know that after ten minutes I would have to take picked ones outside again! For me, lilac, hyacinth and lilies are overwhelming after a few minutes. I do appreciate some fragrances, including some perfumes, especially those made with natural bases. But there are very few that I can wear. There is only one brand of lipstick that I can use. (Since I wear it maybe twice a year, it's not a big concern!) Most people may enjoy the scents of the products they use. Certainly it is only a small percentage of products that is unscented. But we are bombarded with consumer choices that benefit the corporations at the expense of our health and well-being.
I do not know if I have "hyperosmia", which is a condition of very heightened smell awareness. I first saw it mentioned on an episode of the tv show, Castle, just last year. (I was bingeing the show, six years late!) My nose is not as sensitive as that character's was, but I identified with the challenges she faced in every-day situations. Many medical buildings are now "scent-free", which means they ask you not to wear perfumes when visiting them. I love it!
I think we all probably use our noses more than we think. It adds a dimension to our days; the aroma of morning coffee, the garlic toasting in the pan for the spaghetti sauce, knowing those socks need to go in the laundry! This morning I smelled the skunk who lives on our block, which reminded me to be careful when I take Rocky out for our last walk of the night! Perhaps we need to think more about what our noses are smelling!
Today is the first of March. Twenty twenty-three has already been a very long year!
Smell ya later! (As The Simpsons' Ralph used to say.)
Mumma Yaga
Hand sanitizers: Since the pandemic began we have all encountered dozens of brands of it. Many smell of alcohol. That might be a scent that some do not like. There are a few brands that, as soon as I can, I wash off my hands. Most, fortunately, I can tolerate for the short time the smell lingers.
Another aspect of the pandemic has been the covid symptom of loss of smell. I wonder about the significance of this. When I was ill following my second covid vaccine, I experienced a lessening of my sense of taste, though not of smell. I remember noticing when food started to taste more flavourful again; the change was delicious! Not sure why that happened from the vaccine, any more than I could explain my other symptoms!
This article, very timely for this post, on indoor air pollution, talks about the negative impact of the myriad smells with which many people fill their homes. There are poisons in most products that smell, sometimes the poison is just the vehicle to vaporize the perfume.
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