I’d been a fool. I’d been walking the streets grinning good evening at people who were frightened to death of me. I did violence to them by just being. How had I missed this… I tried to be innocuous but didn’t know how…. I began to avoid people. I turned out of my way into side streets to spare them the sense that they were being stalked…. Out of nervousness I began to whistle and discovered I was good at it. My whistle was pure and sweet—and also in tune. On the street at night I whistled popular tunes from the Beatles and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The tension drained from people’s bodies when
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I was wondering if Eric’s (from The Nod podcast) laugh was influenced by this same phenomenon. It’s a very goofy, threat-vaporizing laugh that seemed out of “character” to me, but would put anyone at ease—not that I know him well at all.
Also: hence the book title: makes so much sense now! :)
