Dream Of The Ingloonka

[I dreamt this not long ago.]

My wife, daughter and I are driving around town doing errends. I've got a coupon for a burrito restaurant, but I've got to locate the outlet that will accept the coupon. My wife and daughter go down the streeet to shop while I enter a cafe/bookstore to figure out the directions.

I'm sitting on a long bench facing a wall of books when a man to my right turns to me and says,"Have you heard of the Ingloonka?"

I knew I had heard of the instrument, but didn't know anything about it, so I said, "Yes."

"Well then you know how a reed interupts the flow of air to create a quarter tone waiver...", and he began to sing an example.

He sang a traditional song from some impoverished asian countryside and I was transported to that place and I watched and listened to a 10 year old girl sing a simple song to her god asking forgiveness.

As she sang I began to feel heartbroken by her earnest plea. The song described her day filled with chores done for the family. Only at the end of this sad song do we find out what she wanted forgiveness for: She had been carrying a bucket of water, tripped, spilled some, and fell on an ant killing it.

She felt so bad about the ant that she was begging God for forgiveness.
When the song ended everyone in the cafe, including myself, felt sadness and foolishness for the insensitivity with which we conduct our lives...

At that moment I met the guy sitting next to the singer and he was Giovanni Hidalgo [one of the world's greatest living conga players] and he was expressing a desire to improve his musical skills and his friend told him, "Man, you know how slow you learn!"