No matter how often I’ve seen it, this 2017 Progressive Insurance commercial always makes me laugh. I’m reminded what the commercial says about human nature. More to the point, it demonstrates the human propensity to ignore the old adage:  speak less, listen hard. When someone mentions taking the kids to soccer practice and you’re willing and ready to jump the cactus, there’s a definite failure to communicate.

This week’s news didn’t highlight the failure to communicate, but it did cause people to re-think their understanding about what it means “to hear.” Yes, I’m referring to the Laurel/Yanny debate initiated by a Reddit user posing a simple question:  what do you hear?

The tale of this particular meme is easily understood via a browser search, so I won’t rehash the details in this space. I did think it was interesting to play with The New York Times tool providing an audio frequency range of the short clip to illustrate how easily one might hear Yanny over Laurel (or vice versa).

At our home, my Beloved and I were (predictably) split. He heard Laurel, I heard a very distinct Yanny. That’s when he suggested this would make a fun poem, and I have dutifully complied!