Grand Coincidence Brings Us Together

This week has been an interesting and beautiful week.  It started out with a delivery woman from the flower store with her bicycle helmet and sunglasses on,  passing out flowers, long-stemmed white lilies, to everyone sitting at the tables near me, and she even placed a lily in my guitar case.  At the end of the day, I left my flower in a bottle of spring water with the woman who runs the Asian Restaurant.
And then the woman from Iran, who swings by every day to check the mail for her company, stopped by to talk this time.  It was great getting to know her.  She has the most infectious smile...  She works for the Welcome Bureau of Philadelphia, and was wondering if I'd play for her holiday party.....Muslims celebrating Christmas.....  I think of the news, the bombings, the demonstrations in Tehran these days.  Yet it is not an issue for us.  Muslim, Christian, atheist...we're all brothers and sisters.....  The festival of  lights brings us together....
And yesterday, there was the young banjo player from Georgia, who plays "clawhammer" style...covered with tatoos, singing in a high-pitched Appalacian style to accompany his playing.  He is a new-comer, first day...very enthusiastic and optimistic....  We hit it off immediately and I have found a new brother....
And today, a mentally-deranged Asian woman I've see many times, spoke no English with me, only an Asian language I didn't recognize, and machine-gunned me in that sweet language and wouldn't stop.  I started singing, in English, of course, to counter her monologue, and her harangue softened, as her face softened.  She smiled and her voice started to take on tonal qualities, and she ended up blending with me, harmonizing with me in her language....beautiful and sweet...her face softened and she was almost crying.....  We were connecting, without understanding...as she swayed back and forth.  Raw emotion...  At the end of the song, she turned and walked away....
Annie Dillard writes "grand coincidence brings us together, upright and within earshot, in this flickering generation of human life on this durable planet--common language or not..."
Yes, the music can take you to new places of enlightenment.....beyond language, beyond culture and history, to a place where there are no political or cultural barriers, where language doesn't exist, where the only language spoken is Love....