WHISTLE...STOP!

On my flight today from SFO to SLC there was someone in the back of the jet whistling. It wasn't a song or anything of order, but instead just random disordered whistling sound. When I'm trying to relax and hear something like that, it drives me crazy. Maybe it's some nervous disorder that he had, but it was causing nervous disorder. This makes me recollect a story from my high school days...

In my junior year at Stockdale H.S. I took a chemistry class instructed by Larry Oliver. Mr. Oliver had a strict and specific rule during class, and most importantly, in lab. That rule was: No Whistling. His explanation to the class was met with jeers and snickering, but he was dead serious. Something about how whistling is a distraction from focused laboratory work or something-or-other. Most of us took a mental note.

The whole problem with this concept though is that sometimes whistling is an uncontrolled nervous disorder (see above). No matter what level of student you are, or from any walk-of-life, you may some day whistle for no apparent reason. This happened to the best of them.

Eric Chiou was considered among peers to be the top student in our school. He also was in that same period for Mr. Oliver's chemistry class. One day Eric whistled in class, and off the best-in-class went to the principal's office. From accounts afterwards it was understood that the principal at the time thought it was ridiculous he was sent to the office for such a minor, as well as stupid, offense. Rumor has it that he was just sent home for the day to recover from such a ridiculous incident. It didn't affect his grade from what I understand because he was still one of the 10-20 valedictorians during graduation.

So, I think I should be more understanding and stop from becoming a grumpy old man. I need some kind of meditation to shut things that bother me out of my system. Well...I'd rather not be numb to my environment, just more tolerant. I'm not saying I want to be the super-smiley person all the time...in fact that's impossible because I sometimes golf. Stop your damn whistling and nobody gets hurt!