Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule..
4 minutes later:
The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.
6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.
10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.
45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while.. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.
1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest 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 Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.
This is a true 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 people's priorities.
The questions raised:
*In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
*Do we stop to appreciate it?
*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?
One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.
How many other things are we missing?
Depak says, "There is only this moment." From Barbara - a fellow blogger friend.
Danny Devito - Wikipedia-
DeVito is married to actress Rhea Perlman. They have three children.They live in Beverly Hills, California and at a vacation home in Interlaken, New Jersey. He is an outspoken Democrat, and a supporter of the OneVoice Movement, a non-profit organization that strives to empower moderate Israelis and Palestinians to take a more assertive role in resolving their conflict. He is also currently a member of the steering committee of the Friends of the Apollo, along with his wife and filmmaker Jonathan Demme. DeVito has stated that despite what websites such as IMDb have claimed, he is not a vegetarian and that he does eat meat.
Danny is not a vegan - who knew?
Love,
chatty
13 comments:
I will add one more possible reason.....maybe we don't know what is good unless someone tells us? I think some people go to hear certain music because of status rather than preference or understanding.
Hey, that is a possibility I never thought of - that could be true. Good thought there. Hmmmm . . . Thanks.
That was interesting - dumb people, huh?
I think one of the saddes things about this was that the parents rushed their children along when the kids were wanting to stop and listen and observe. As a parent, when my kids were younger, I was always on the lookout for interesting teaching moments; this would have been one of them, not even realizing who the violinist was, but just to stop and listen to someone playing music in a different place would have made it noteworthy, know what I mean?
very interesting experiment
(thanks for all your kind comments on my blog :)
betty
That is very interesting! We lived in the DC Metro area but we never rode on the Metro. I'm sure we would have stopped to listen but I don't think we would have known who he was!
Just goes to show you that the children do have ears to hear and they are hearing a lot of mixed messages from our world today!
Hugs,
Angela
ps~ sorry you are allergic to animals
Hi! What an incredible experiment! So very sad too. I'm sure we are all guilty of missing out on the beauty all around us. But, the last few months, I have really made an effort to notice it more - because my souls needs it so very much.
Maybe also people are just too busy and rushing around and they think one minute stopped will mess up everything in their day. Then they are too busy - or think they are.
Cynthia K.
I keep thinking about when I was younger I rushed - now that I'm older I'm slowing down to try to enjoy more.
The other thing is we raise our kids and make them 'grow up' - then they grow up and realized they missed the fun stuff - and when they get to middle age - they think what the heck happened to my life.
Let kids be kids and enjoy life and slow it down.
What a nice reminder to stop and enjoy the moment. Thanks for sharing.
Hi! I am still here reading your fun and interesting posts. The rain is playing havoc with our internet connection the last few days, so I haven't been posting comments too often b3ecause I keep getting dropped. Thanks for all the your good wishes you left on FT-L; we both appreciate them. We're just hanging around waiting for appointments right now, but otherwise fine.
Very interesting story... and really sad that not many people paid much attention.
I guess we're back to more rain... I'm glad I got to enjoy the few days of nice warm sunny weather we had :)... at least they can't fuss about drought this year...lol
A Lil Enchanted,
~LaShan~
Now we can complain about the rain (lol) - the rainiest year on record.
what an interesting experiment...I know if daughter had Miss B in the NY subway and they heard beautiful music playing she would certainly stop and let Miss B take it in...she takes her to museums and art exhibits...every week...they can never start too young to appreciate talent in others...and Danny Devito...I can never get over the fact that he was once a women's hair stylist in NJ....How did he reach their hair...a stool maybe?
I know your daughter would stopped and listened to him with her little one - you would too.
I didn't know that Danny was a women's hair stylist! See you still learn something every day!
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