When we were done we stopped the tape. Our enthusiasm was evident. We had just played a song, with a definitive structure, created in real time together. It was different when there had been other players in the room; the two of us found a clearer focus on the smaller details, and communicated differently from that day forward. It was another two months before we played music together again, and by then the band had a name and an ethos.

The unspoken conversation happens in kitchens, workshops, and dance floors daily, anticipating the action but not being in front of it more than is required. Seamlessly replacing words with flow while the other senses play a higher role than verbal cognition. Listen.

Observe the situation without your imposition. Again listen. If one is willing, one can find the cues for positive intervention and collaboration. The pulpy vessel we drive is the most culpable in any lack of progress in this. Listen not only with your ears, but the whole body as a synchronized receiver of transmitted vibrations on multiple frequencies.

We are expected to speak. A response is demanded of us. Shouting in the town square may be necessary if no one else is shouting, but when everyone is, the logical thing to do is stand still and stay quiet. A refusal to add to the jumble of opinions rings out, silence is loudest. Beware the story of Babel, as the fall of a civilization begins everyone is talking. 

The two of us, hours into a performance, both hear some external thing with a particular resonance and turn our heads up from whatever had previously held our attention. We knowingly smile.