Can you Hear me Now? Are you Listening?

No, this is not the start of a cell phone commercial, but recently, my tennis partner shouted, “It’s out,” as the ball flew over his head (meaning it will be out of bounds). I heard him but didn’t listen because it looked to me like the ball was in, and it was. Unfortunately, I still missed making the point, but it brought back memories of hearing versus listening.

When I was about eight or nine years old, my mother took me to our pediatrician because she was concerned that I had a hearing impairment. After the doctor gave me a very low-tech hearing test, he assured my mother that my hearing w...