Editing Sigil:Gholibin (section)

== Musicians and Their Instruments ==

A gifted musician occupies an unusual position in Gholibin society because music crosses so many boundaries between pleasure and necessity. One player may be an entertainer, teacher, memorist, signaler, storyteller, and keeper of an inherited instrument at different moments of the same life. Other musicians specialize narrowly and have no desire whatsoever to preserve an ancient genealogy when there is dancing to be done.

Instruments themselves can accumulate histories. A chorla patched by generations of the same Hearth, an old bakka associated with a famous gathering, or a boka-boka containing bones whose names remain remembered may become an object around which stories gather. Gholibin often name favored instruments and can devote absurd amounts of care to keeping a beloved wreck functional.

Repair does not diminish authenticity. It proves continuity.

This attitude closely resembles the Gholibin understanding of their own civilization. A thing need not remain unchanged in order to remain itself. Parts can be lost. New pieces can be fitted. A settlement can be abandoned. A Hearth can adopt survivors from another. A song can acquire a new verse.

Continuity resides in what is carried forward.