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Do We Perceive Beauty in an Unexpected Context
We've had so many thought provoking discussions here at Loopers Delight
(one
of the nicest runs in this site's history) lately, about philosophy.
Tonight. in an introspective mood, I saw two things posted to Facebook:
I'll repost one here and one in the next email because they concern
diffrerent topics.
I found one depressing and one inspiring but they both inspired meditation.
Firstly:
A man sat at a metro stationin Washington DC and started to play the
violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for
about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was
calculated that 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on
their way to work.
Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician
playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then
hurried up to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman
threw the money in the till and without stopping, and continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him,
but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he
was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother
tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist.
Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk,
turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other
children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed
for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal
pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over,
no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most
talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most
intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a
theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station
was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment
about perception, taste, and priorities of people. The outlines were: in
a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive
beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an
unexpected context?
One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best
musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many
other things are we missing?