A New York Times reporter was kidnapped and held in a tribal area in Pakistan, reminded daily by his viciously anti-American captors that he could be killed at any time.

The reporter, David Rohde, eventually escaped. And now, in a touching anecdote, he described how much his kidnappers loved certain American songs – and one in particular.

“The Beatles song, ‘She Loves You,’ which popped into my head soon after I received my wife’s letter from the Red Cross, was the most popular,” Rohde wrote in a series now running in the New York Times. “For reasons that baffled me, the guards relished singing it with me. I began by singing its first verse. My three Taliban guards . joined me in the chorus. ‘She loves you – yeah yeah yeah,’ we sang, with Klashnikovs lying on the floor around us.”

What is it about music that can bring us together so well? What is it about certain songs that can make Taliban fighters drop their assault rifles and join an American reporter in singing a Beatles tune?

It reminds me of an outdoor concert I attended by a funky ’80s band called Midnight Star. The audience was half black, half white. But once the band started pumping “No Parking on the Dance Floor,” all the audience fell into the same groove. White men in Hawaiian shirts were awkwardly snapping right next to the smooth break dancers. Black and white couples were suddenly trading partners, laughing and dancing the night away together.

At one point, I stopped my own clown show of a dance to look around and think, “Wow, look at this. Why can’t the rest of the world act like this audience?”

I don’t know what happened to that audience when the music stopped or where those feelings retreated to when everyone went home. But I do know how we find them when we aren’t at a dance party. We do it by respecting the people around us for what they have in common with us rather than what they don’t. By sharing a laugh with a total stranger, making connections in everyday life like those made at my concert. Try it, it feels good.

Yesterday, I saw two construction workers in a truck being forced to follow a skateboarder going 5 mph. They were shaking their heads in disbelief, and as they drove by me, I made eye contact and laughed. They looked at me, realized I was laughing with them, and burst out laughing harder than I did. I’ve never seen them before, and never will again. But I shared a human connection that made all of us feel good. Try it.

Look up from your phone and laugh with a stranger on the bus, or thank your driver. Smile and strike up a conversation with a food service employee, instead of treating them like a plastic, inanimate drink dispenser.

I think it comes down to two different worlds in which we can choose to live. One is a world dominated by “for us or against us” cable television. Commentators and guests alike no longer respect the other opinions as possibly valid. Olbermann thinks he’s a moral God and trashes O’Reilly for ratings, and O’Reilly returns the favor. And as those ratings climb, their followers are left living in a polarized society, demonizing beliefs which differ from their own.

I think there’s still an alternative world. Call me a bleeding heart, but I like the world I see on display in the popular “Playing for Change” videos on YouTube – And 15 million viewers seem to agree with me. The videos are made by a man who travels the world mixing different musicians together on the same track. My favorite is a beautiful new rendition of Ben E. King’s old classic “Stand By Me.” And if you’re not moved by dozens of people from different countries singing it, you must be missing a pulse.

For here is a celebration of the commonalities we can find in each other through music. Here is an experiment that leads me to believe somewhere, somehow, we can find common ground and build from there toward greater goals. Sure – even in the Middle East.

And even if that means blasting “She loves you – yeah yeah yeah” all throughout the war-torn mountains of Pakistan.

- Marc McAfee is the online editor for The Red & Black.