{"id":9135,"date":"2015-02-01T08:23:14","date_gmt":"2015-02-01T16:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michellejolin.com\/wordpress\/?p=9135"},"modified":"2015-02-01T08:22:03","modified_gmt":"2015-02-01T16:22:03","slug":"the-whistler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=9135","title":{"rendered":"How well do you know anyone?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nAll of a sudden she began to whistle. By all of a sudden
\nI mean that for more than thirty years she had not
\nwhistled. It was thrilling. At first I wondered, who was
\nin the house, what stranger? I was upstairs reading, and
\nshe was downstairs. As from the throat of a wild and
\ncheerful bird, not caught but visiting, the sounds war-
\nbled and slid and doubled back and larked and soared.<\/p>\n

Finally I said, Is that you? Is that you whistling? Yes, she
\nsaid. I used to whistle, a long time ago. Now I see I can
\nstill whistle. And cadence after cadence she strolled
\nthrough the house, whistling.<\/p>\n

I know her so well, I think. I thought. Elbow and an-
\nkle. Mood and desire. Anguish and frolic. Anger too.
\nAnd the devotions. And for all that, do we even begin
\nto know each other? Who is this I\u2019ve been living with
\nfor thirty years?<\/p>\n

This clear, dark, lovely whistler?
\n–Mary Oliver\/The Whistler<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No matter how long you know someone, or how intimate a relationship is, you can never know everything about another person. Everyone, no matter how open their personality, has things they don’t share. It might not even be on purpose. Something just might not occur to them as being noteworthy.<\/p>\n

Like whistling. <\/p>\n

Molly didn’t whistle for thirty years…and then she did, and her lover was in love all over again with this person who she thought she knew everything about. A whole new person all of a sudden. <\/p>\n

This is a very good thing. A constant renewal and appreciation of our relationships. <\/p>\n

Maybe there are a few people who are so utterly bland and unchanging that they are always completely predictable, but surely not very many. I’d like to think that most of us are capable of surprises. Hopefully pleasant ones. <\/p>\n

Or is it a sign of inattention? Are these surprises about the people in our lives things we should have noticed?<\/p>\n

Once in awhile those things leak out, like when I found myself singing in public without even realizing it, or when someone said “did you know that you hum incessantly?” and I had no idea. <\/p>\n

Sometimes the person you don’t know is yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All of a sudden she began to whistle. By all of a sudden I mean that for more than thirty years she had not whistled. It was thrilling. At first I wondered, who was in the house, what stranger? I was upstairs reading, and she was downstairs. As from the throat of a wild and … Continue reading How well do you know anyone?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"How well do you know anyone? http:\/\/wp.me\/p4FR8-2nl","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-words"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7lr3R-2nl","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2371,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=2371","url_meta":{"origin":9135,"position":0},"title":"Truth or dare?","author":"Michelle","date":"November 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The truth can't hurt you, it's just like the dark It scares you witless But in time\u00a0 you see things clear and stark. --Elvis Costello\/I Want You \u00a0 \u00a0 Truth is kind of a wiggly construct. 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