Pan flutes

5/8/25 Walking through the 42nd st subway station on my way to work today, I passed a pan flute player dressed completely in indigenous apparel, including a colorful feathered headdress. There are often pan flute players in this station. They usually are playing something more traditional but today he was playing Madonna - La Isla Bonita. Pan flutes always give me a tinge of sadness, because they make me think of Dad. Even as his memory faded and his language became jumbled, he stayed conected to music, which seemed to touch a less affected part of his brain. We had a pan flute CD, which we played for him so often that one day he said "that music is very popular!" We were confused by this statement until we realized that he thought the music was coming from the radio, and that pan flutes were on the radio all the time.

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