Maybe music will work

On a flight between Honolulu and Tokyo I became the third member of the International Tap Dancer’s Federation.

It was a tongue-in-cheek idea that if we could get all the world’s leaders on the banks of the Yangtze River in China and get them tap dancing, we could achieve world peace. Well, that didn’t happen.

The other two members were the fellow I was seated next to, Tom Ungman, and a fellow working for the Hong Kong Standard newspaper, Peter Turvey.

There’s a couple of reasons that didn’t work.  

One is that our leaders are married to the two-step shuffle. That’s the art of keeping the public confused so they can stay in power. And there is some question if many of the world leaders could find China on a world map.

So, let’s give music a chance.

I have found that music, any variety, is a real universal language.

In Japan, I had signed up for a night tour and there were four Cubans on the bus who entertained those on the tour with songs. They really made the tour transit time enjoyable. Every time we would reload the bus and head out for more Tokyo nightlife, they would start singing again. The next night I was walking and came across a German-style beer hall, and again the music filled an empty space.

I left Japan to go to Taiwan, where I spent a few days in Taipei. While there, I visited a crazy place that was an eight-story building, each story with a different activity. One floor was devoted to music, another to food, and so on. Again, it was interesting to hear the Taiwanese flavor of song.

The next music experience was in Cambodia, where I was invited to what we would call a barn dance. Again, music became the common denominator. There was no worry about communicating, music did it all.

In Hong Kong, music filled the air at evening places during and after the dinner hour. It was interesting that the singers did American songs, using words that they thought they heard.

Similar instances occur in Thailand, Vietnam, Burma and India.

We had similar experiences at Grand Cayman. We had gone there for an inexpensive week-long vacation several years ago. Grand Cayman Island is the largest in the chain of three that make up the Grand Cayman Islands.

It is only a few miles long, and we rented a car so we could get around.

We went to two roadhouses while there. One we walked to, about a five-minute walk, where we ate and listened to live music, done the Caribbean way.

A second outing was a few miles up the way, where the specialty was sea turtle steaks, and again live music.

Indeed, music seems to be the common denominator universally.

So instead of tap dancing on the banks of the Yangtze River, maybe we could substitute song.

It’s a wonderful world!