Haiku 2023–351
-.-. .-.. .- .-. .. - -.-- -.. . .--. . -.. ...
--- -. --- . -. -.. . .-. .- -. -.. .-. . -.-. . .. ...- . ._.
..- -. -.. . .-. ... - .- -. -.. .. -. --. .. -
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Well, I've gone and done it again - another haiku displayed in a manner that only a small segment of the population will understand. For those of you whose knowledge of Morse code is either rusty or non-existent, here's what it says.
clarity depends
on sender and receiver
understanding it
(For the record, my Morse code is way rusty - despite having a document that says I can hear at thirteen words per minute, I had to look up a few of the lesser-used letters.)
A certain section of amateur radio operators will tell you using 'continuous wave' - the normal method of sending Morse code - is the most robust and reliable way of sending a message. From their perspective, they're absolutely right. When conditions are rough or noisy, the human ear can hear the keying and unkeying of a transmitter when all other forms of passing a message by way of radio is unintelligible. As long as you know the code, you can interpret the message.
The problem is an ever-decreasing amount of people know the code.
Understanding communication depends on a myriad of factors, even among people who speak the same language. Age, gender, occupation, regionality, political bent, and more demographic data points than you could possibly name warp words we all use into different meanings. I brushed up against a similar topic eleven days ago when I wrote about emojis. I thought giving a thumbs up would be universal here in America, but I've read that younger generations find it to be passive aggressive. For those of us who grew up when Happy Days could still be found on prime time television (please, Gen Z, don't make me explain that), that is most decidedly not the case.
The point of this haiku, from my perspective, is this - not everyone is going to understand the poetic musings of a fifty-two year old white man from a distant suburb of a medium-sized city, even if he does package up a bit of prose along with it... but I'm going to do my best to try.
