The Nature of Smell

Last night my coach hit the passenger side view mirror on a tree and it shattered and the whole thing came off. This morning as we were driving around, she said, “I miss my right side mirror. I didn’t even know I’d miss it until it was gone.”

That’s exactly how this smell thing is.

Think about it. We all know that things have a scent, a fragrance, something that comes before you can see whatever it is and gives you a hint of what it might be. But we don’t actually focus on that. Nobody thinks about that. I know I never did. I’m pretty sure at least once or twice I actually wished I wouldn’t be able to smell something or other. Go figure, right? But it’s amazing how NOT having something when you didn’t know you’d miss it just throws you for a loop. It’s weird and it’s disorienting and it takes a LOT of getting used to. So we’re going to talk about smells today, and see if you can get what I’m saying, or trying to.

Let’s start with an example. Mulch. Anybody that has ever worked in a garden or their backyard knows what mulch smells like. Not particularly pleasant, but you know exactly what it is before you get there. If you smell that smell, you know you are going to see mulch.

Or another, more painful example. This is one I use to drive home this point when people tell me that losing smell wouldn’t be so bad. “I can’t smell bacon.”

Now, if you’re a vegetarian or vegan, you won’t care as much. But anyone who eats meat knows and appreciates the smell of bacon as much, if not more, than the actual taste of bacon. You smell that, you know bacon is on the table or in the frying pan, and that is a beautiful thing.

Right now I am in one of the most beautiful places on earth, I’m sure of it. Lake Lure, North Carolina. Never been here before, and I feel like I’ve missed out on something because of it. I’ve always been one for appreciating nature and the natural beauty of this world of ours, and I have tons of pictures to prove it. But this is a little weird for me. Nature has a smell. Fresh air has a smell. Mountains have a smell.

You don’t think about it until you don’t have it. I’m going on walks and trails and wishing I could get a hint of what this place smells like. Does it smell like sand and sun, like California?
Does it smell fresh and clean like Eagle Lake in Michigan?

Does its air fill your lungs and give you a hint of pine like Montana?

Does it have a rich, earthy moss-like smell that seeps into your skin like Scotland?

I don’t know. I’m a little sad about it, but at least I can see it, right? I can see with my eyes that this is a gorgeous place and no camera can fully capture what I can see. It’s not like someone could bottle the scent of a place anyway, it’s all in our memories. But it’s spring here. Spring has a smell, too. Rain has a smell. I wonder if I’ll notice anything different tomorrow, when it rains.

Here’s something else I’ve learned, though. Air has texture.

No, really, it does. We tend not to notice it, probably because the smells get in the way and overpower everything else. I’ve spent my entire life surrounded by chlorine, so much so that I’m pretty sure that’s what the air in my lungs smells like. But I can’t smell it now. I spent 6 days at a pool in Austin, Texas and never once smelled it. Didn’t really notice much there, but I’m paying attention now.

I went to the indoor pool at the fitness center here to find someone, and before I ever left the locker room, I could tell you I was heading for the pool, and not because I could smell anything. The air was thicker, moister, and it felt so different on my face and arms. It was so easy to tell the difference, I wonder that I’d never noticed before. I mean, I’m sure I did, but who pays attention to that?

And when I leave a building and go outside? The air is totally different. Breathing is easier, my lungs expand so much more, and you just have to sigh. The air is different up in the mountains of North Carolina than it is down in the valleys in West Virginia. It almost feels like what I experienced when I went to Ireland and got out of the city and up into the hills. The air was clearer, fresher, and breathing just lifted weight off of your shoulders. I remember that smell. But thankfully, I also remember that feeling. And I still have that. That’s still there.

So nature these days smells like every bathroom in America to me now does. Nothing. Is that depressing? Sure. I love smelling flowers and trees. I’m one of those people who stands by their real Christmas tree and just inhales it because it smells so good and no candle will ever be able to recreate that smell. I would love to smell the daffodils that have suddenly popped up EVERYWHERE along our drive from the lake to our house. I want to know if that gorgeous flowering tree by the cafeteria smells as good as it looks.

But hey, maybe it smells awful. Maybe looking at it is better than smelling it. Maybe the mulch they are using really reeks and it would have given me a headache. Maybe my housemates actually stink and I’m living in a lovely bubble of ignorance.

I still remember what rain smells like. I still remember what freshly cut grass smells like. I remember what the honeysuckle behind the playground at my elementary school smells like. And maybe, once the weirdness fades, that will come back to me, even if it’s just a memory.

And a memory is a whole heck of a lot better than never knowing at all.

High: I went on a hike out in nature today and got a great workout and didn’t care if I smelled or not, since I couldn’t tell anyway. Major perks there.

Low: There was bacon at breakfast. [Stab me in the heart with an imaginary knife, how that one still hurts]
High: My other senses are really working hard to see if they can make up for not smelling. Touch is letting me feel more, sight is taking in more, hearing is picking up different things, and taste—the poor thing—is working overtime to give me as much information about what I’m eating as it can. If you want to know how something tastes when it doesn’t really have a taste, I can tell you. It’s pretty cool, actually.

Pay more attention to the world around you. Sights, sounds, feelings, smells, tastes… There are so many layers and levels that we aren't noticing!