A couple of my favorites in my "arsenal" of songs--As Tom Lehrer says: "We are the folk song army; each and every one of us cares, etc..."--are "Let The Band Play Dixie" by the late Bob Gibson, and "Christmas In The Trenches" by John McCutcheon, both of which speak to the power of music to unite people above the din of the guns of war. I was playing these both the other day (apparently not loud enough, since war persists), and I was struck by a realization. While I assumed that all of humanity has some music, even if it is not music I care for, and that that music has some deep human meaning to them (and thus is a universal that all humans can unite around), the Taliban and some other religious fundamentalists denounce music outright. This realization caused me to wonder, then, if not music, IS there any universal that we can come together around? It seems to me that peace or some semblance thereof requires something that all parties have in common.

I am NOT trolling, here. I am posing an ernest question to people whose insight I value, and also continuing to introduce myself by way of mentioning two songs that are very important to me, and the fact that I play. That playing, by the way, left my private room a few years ago, and began to find its way to retirement homes and a few other non-paying venues where people would at least not leave in *large* numbers. And this post is now long and rambling enough. I am thrilled to be here and gratified at the back-channel and board welcomes I have received. I hope I continue to make friends and manage to avoid massively pissing anyone off.

Saul