Around the sense of smell

Some reflections on smell

The scent emanating from any type of product, from designer cologne to a simple bar of soap, originates from the essences, both natural (essential oils) and reconstituted (compounds), used in its production.
It is probably important to accustom ourselves from childhood to recognizing and associating odors, both pleasant and foul, to prevent "olfactory illiteracy," a sort of "rampant pandemic" peculiar to modern times. The younger generations, often raised in urban environments, far from plants and animals, in today's domestic hygiene characterized by presumed demands for asepticity as well as an overwhelming olfactory standardization, are the "victims" of this world of mass consumption. The current trend would seem to be leading to the extinction of the beauty of smelling, smelling, and sniffing—vocations that are not necessarily "canine," but fundamental elements of the human interaction with all matter (regardless of whether animal, vegetable, or mineral).

In short, having a "cultivated sense of smell," like other aspects of human knowledge, enriches the imagination and contributes to many, many more ways and reasons to evaluate, appreciate, despise, desire, savor, and recall the world around us. Furthermore, we might observe that re-exerting our (often) atrophied sense of smell connects us to our evolutionary origins, and this would seem to be incontrovertible proof that this sense, increasingly "domesticated and anesthetized" by modernity (or rather, by the logic of mass consumerism), belongs to the most important part of human knowledge.
Knowing essences, being able to associate a name or adjectives with a smell, not only raises one's basic intellectual profile but also deepens one's awareness of the origins of perceptions and sensations that have been part of our world since birth. Indeed, it is through our "miraculous sense of smell" that certain odors activate biochemical processes within our bodies that can promote a certain mood, or vividly (and instantly) evoke situations and circumstances experienced in other periods of our lives.

That said... is living with "olfactory myopia" worth it?