Living in a Vedic trance

We are sitting here after our usual latish breakfast, listening to a friend of our beloved son's playing his little traveling guitar which he has converted to a slide, but which he plays as a sitar. This is a young fellow who plays a mean electric guitar, jazz/fusion, as well as tablas and Indian bamboo flutes, which he has introduced to our son. Amazingly wonderful improvisation, right out in my entryway; we have paid to hear music not nearly this good. I will ask him later if it is a raga he's playing, or referring to. Eastern music, which for a while I thought sounded "all the same," is very complicated, I've learned, even from country to country. I've read a bit about some forms, but once you begin to do so, it feels as if you've wandered into the mazes of a mysterious walled city, with passages going off in all directions and no idea which turning to take. So much tradition, passed on from master players to disciples, who in turn become masters, and pass on their knowledge to more disciples. Unfamiliar instruments, or very different uses of familiar ones, such as a violin played as the musician holds it upright in his lap; alien-sounding rhythm patterns and counts; as the character Manuel from Barcelona in Fawlty Towers always used to say,"I know NOOOO-thing. Yet I am learning always."
They have been waiting for two of their friends from Joshua Tree, CA, to appear, Nick and Sarah. They decided to head over to WhidbeyIsland to Ebey's Landing, one of the loveliest dayhikes you can get to around here. When the couple finally arrived, a bit before noon, they had enough time to get there well before sunset, which will be gorgeous.
The kids had a wonderful little hike. The young woman of the couple invited me to come down to climb with her in Joshua Tree. I wish I could transport there instantly.
The guitar-playign friend decided we should all watch a movie, one part of a trilogy that started with "Koyannesqu" or however it is spelled; this segment was titled"Baraka." No dialogue, lots of music from all over the world; it had a National Geographic visual quality, but rather a sobering message ultimately, and one of my battle cries: We are destroying this planet. It was far more hopeful at its end, implying that via the goodness in mankind, we have the potential to improve ourselves. As Willy the Scots school custodian in The Simpsons would say, 'atsa load o' CRRRRAAAP! The bad guys are ahead...
Somehow I slept well, with no nightmares about baby chickens swirling down a metal chute to their doom...