Whistle Wonders

As I walk down the street, I'm frustrated and angry and upset and generally in a bad mood. Things are pretty shitty so I'm walking it out, storming down the street. My muscles are tensed up; if you'd said anything to me, I would've walked right by. I was NOT a happy camper.

Then I heard whistling. It wasn't a particularly nice day out, and Hall & Oates wasn't playing over loudspeakers somewhere, so I assumed that people wouldn't automatically be happy and smiling and whistling. But someone was. Who was happily whistling?! I needed to know who and why.


I look up and around. I just see a few people walking determinedly, all with the standardly blank and expressionless faces of city-goers. Then I look to my right and see a man digging through some trash cans. He was the whistler.

I almost stopped dead in my tracks to just stare and watch this man. Instantly, guilt enveloped me. I felt rude and ungrateful and spoiled; I felt lower than whale shit. As cliche as it is, this man had so much less than me (apparently), and he was whistling. While I was pissed off and storming through the streets like a child on a temper tantrum, this man was whistling a happy, graceful tune. I don't know if he was generally just a happy man who didn't let things get him down or if it was a sort of coping method to make his situation better, but whatever the case, he had a quality I was lacking.

Everyone tells you to "realize what YOU have and be grateful for it," and yes, I get that and I am grateful, but I don't think I have the ability to FULLY appreciate my circumstances. I want to, but it's just not something we can do if we haven't experienced such a drastic alternative. I know I sound like a spoiled prick right now, but that's the truth. I've never been without food or clothing or a ceiling, so I can't particularly imagine what it would be like. So, I took something a bit more literal away from that garbage-picking man.

Now, when I'm feeling grumpy, I just whistle things out instead. I force a smile and put a happy tune to things--soon enough, the smile isn't forced and it's real. If something's not-so-great, spice it up and make it okay. As Kevin Spacey so perfectly put it in American Beauty, "I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me, but it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world."

There IS good out there, in every situation. Maybe you have to move a few feet to the left to see it or take a walk around the block or play your favorite song or just find someone else out there, but there IS good. There IS beauty--you just have to give it the chance to shine through. I know that I'm no reputable source, but just try it. It won't let you down.



Whistle while you work,
The A.S.S.