Passing by...

This week I re-read and old article I had saved from the newspaper…

What do you think would happen, hypothetically, if one of the world’s greatest violinists performed incognito before an audience of over 1000 people? What if he performed on a violin hand crafted by Antonio Stradivari in 1713? What if he performed the greatest pieces of music written for violin, masterpieces, for nearly an hour? What if he performed the pieces flawlessly? And, what if he did this in a very busy place in the middle of rush-hour? What might happen?
Well, the Washington Post wondered this very thing and enlisted Joshua Bell, possibly the world’s greatest living violinist, to don a baseball cap, a t-shirt and jeans and to play his 3.5 million dollar (yes, 3.5$ million) violin in a subway station in Washington, DC. Bell opened his case and began playing the violin.

At the end of an hour he’d made $32.17. Twenty-seven people had passed by and put money in his case; one person recognized him; a few people, less than 10, actually paused to listen to the music. But – here was the shocking thing – 1070 people hurried by like he wasn’t even there. 1070 people missed the greatest violinist in the world playing on the greatest instrument, a Stradivarius, playing masterpieces. 1070! Can you believe it?

As I re-read this article I felt so very sad. I also wondered if I would’ve been one of the ones who passed by. There are videos of this on the internet, for this experiment was filmed. There are also interviews with people who passed by and missed it.

You can guess the responses people gave for passing by: it was Friday and I was in a hurry. I couldn’t hear – my ipod was in. I didn’t have time. I didn’t recognize the music.

I noticed one interesting thing in the excerpts from the video of this experiment…when the violinist was playing, men and women passed right by nearly every single time. Caucasians passed by, as did African Americans. Indians passed by, so did Asians. But all the children who walked by noticed the music and wanted to stop and listen. And every single one of them was hurried along by his or her parents.

This experiment raises bigger questions: Do we have time for beauty in everyday life? How often do we miss the moment? When is the last time you rushed by never noticing a beautiful thing? (The article was: ‘Pearls Before Breakfast,’ by Gene Weingarten, The Washington Post, 04.08.07)

Blessings,

Ande