Beauty All Around Us

My design consultant (she designed the cool “bg” logo at the top of my blog) sent me the following story. It reminded me of Kelly – and I’ll tell you why at the end of the piece...

A man sat at a metro station in 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 thousands of 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 a 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, 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 prodded 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 still continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, no one gave him any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theatre in Boston and 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?

This reminded me of Kelly because she once told us a story of rushing through a subway station on the way to school. Feeling stressed out and hurried, she was barely paying attention to what was happening around her. As she went down the subway steps, she heard a busker playing an Eagles song that her Dad always played. It might have been “Take it Easy”, or “Hotel California”. Her heart was warmed thinking of the love of her Dad. This poor (literally), stressed out student gave the busker one of her last dollars to thank him for bringing joy into her day.

If only we were like the children, or Kelly, in these stories and took time to notice the beauty around us and the random events that warm our heart. May you take those moments in 2009.