An observation

[Guest guest]

I was just re-reading some old posts, like way back to 2006, and I

wanted to post a list that someone else posted of sounds that other

people make -- please read the list first and then my comment will

follow:

> To this day I cannot tolerate whistling. Other sounds that trigger my

> anxiety are nail biting, men rattling change in their pockets (usually

> done

> while waiting in a line for something), card shuffling, nail biting,

nail

> clipping, people rattling candy wrappers, my husband rubbing his feet

> together while watching TV, people clearing their throat, people

sucking

> their fingers while eating instaed of using a napkin, people chewing

ice,

> breathing loudly, drumming their fingers on a table, etc.

And add to that coin-jiggling in the pocket, humming, foot bouncing,

twirling the hair, scratching repetitively, blowing and cracking bubble

gum, nail biting and picking, foot tapping, sighing, nodding, etc.

------

Okay, now on to my epiphany: DOESN'T THE WORLD SEEM LIKE IT NEEDS TO

TAKE A PILL? I mean, in general, we've all agreed that lack of manners

in noise-making is some of the most offensive to us, but blaringly

obvious and overriding and included in MOSTLY ALL the noises we hate

are that they indicate FRENETIC activity. Like the whole world around

us is fricking on speed. That nervousness, hyerpactivity or frustated

motions/sounds made when bored indicate to me that most people (not me,

though) need to CALM DOWN.

Not that this helps much, but it did occur to me that this a society

problem that is pervasive, not just limited to a chosen few. I have

seen many many people with these specific habits, and they drive me

crazy! I think people, in general, are neurotic from birth. It's part

of our genetic makeup that we've evolved into from living in such a

structured, manic, noisy, toxic, chemically treated, contained and

unnatural environment. Who agrees? My advice for us all is to keep

working on other people (and stop worrying about fixing ourselves) to

eat better and possibly organic food, eat less and certainly NOT

between meals, perhaps even fasting occasionally as we would naturally

do in the wild. Also to promote methods of relaxation to those around

us (friends, family, co-workers, etc.) like yoga and deep breathing.

And to try and eliminate as much plastic as we can from our

environment. It's noisy AND bad for our earth.

Did you ever notice that other animals have VERY FEW, if any, nervous

habits, like we do? The only time I ever see any of these is when an

animal is caged - the pacing.