"Tapatam:" The sound of forward momentum
This is LA. And that means, if you are like me, that when not listening one's own cds, you are probably tuned into 89.9, KCRW. And so, it was today, at 1:37 P.M. that I flipped on the radio and was spellbound by one particular song courtesy of Tom Schnabel on KCRW. It's a song called " Tapatam," from a documentary called The Laya Project , about the lives and music culture of coastal and surrounding communities in the 2004 tsunami-affected regions of Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar and India. But, back to the sounds I heard today. It wasn't just the sounds, it was the rhythm. It was about moving forward. It spilled over me and through me and drove home my lesson for the day, a particular lesson I am so very desperately trying to accept and ride on, like a surfer, or a fighter pilot, or a child learning to ride a bike for the very first time: The lesson is; we are always in motion. And all motion has a rhythm,