Balafon

It is useful to remember that what we see on the “news” is in fact NOT typical of life in general, but usually an exceptionally rare and unusual occurrence:

The current employment rate is 95.3 percent.
Out of 300 million Americans, roughly 299.999954 million were not murdered today.
Day after day, some 35,000 commercial flights traverse our skies without incident.
The vast majority of college students who got drunk last weekend did not rape anyone, or kill themselves or anyone else in a DUI or hazing incident. On Monday, they got up and went to class, bleary-eyed but otherwise okay.

Why is there music in a church service? Why do we go to operas and musical theatre? What is it about music and lyrics?

Perhaps a demonstration is in order. Go take a listen to a regular-looking guy with a silly little harp telling a story in a thousand-year-old language, and then tell me you didn’t get shivers up your spine.