Tuesday, January 22, 2013

When it comes to truth who do we listen to? What are we missing?



Neila Lott posted this on Google+ recently:
Something to think about... We Are Missing A Lot In Life

"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 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 theatre 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?"


"No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made." -Washington Post

  Is it only the ignominious, unlikely context of this remarkable performance that caused it to pass virtually unnoticed? Was it because of the mundane setting that had no air of grandeur and authority, was it the incongruity of it all that robbed people? Have we missed other remarkable events?
"For many of us, the explosion in technology has perversely limited, not expanded, our exposure to new experiences. Increasingly, we get our news from sources that think as we already do. And with iPods, we hear what we already know; we program our own playlists."-Washington Post

This reminds me in a way of another story I once read and despite my attempts to find the source have been unable to track it down.It goes something like this:


A man had been a resident of Paris for many years, but despite Paris having the reputation of being a cultural center of the world, home of wonderful architecture, haunt of many a philosopher and repository of magnificent works of art he paid no heed or had any interest in such things. Finally, almost as an afterthought he took it upon himself to visit the Louvre.



After spending some hours wandering through hallowed corridors of the art worlds treasures, squinting with craned neck at Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", taking in the form of Michelangelo's "Slave", the timeless masterpiece of the "Venus de Milo" and surveying the huge 70 square meter Veronese "Wedding Feast At Cana" and other works of art, this gentleman sought the exit doors.


As he was leaving he spoke with one of the security guards there. "You know" he said to the guard with a shrug of his shoulders and an air of disdain, "I don't know what all the fuss is about, why this great to-do over a lot of old canvas and cracking paint, bits of broken marble and all the result largely of figments of human-kinds imagination! What a waste of time and money!" And he continued to harangue the guard with his biting analysis of the worthlessness of all that he had just witnessed.


The guard listened patiently and respectfully to the tirade. At last when the man had said his piece and fell silent the guard responded quietly: "Monsieur, believe me when I tell you this, you have not judged these priceless works of art. No, on the contrary these works of art have judged you- Good day Sir."


I think the moral of both of these stories should at least provoke some pause for thought. Neila poses the question :


How many other things are we missing?

Indeed how many have we missed? There is a timeless story of one who appeared on earth, born in lowly circumstances....Isn't it time to take another look?



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