Friday Gyan 1: Things we miss in life

We have a Book Community in my workplace, which shares inspirational moral stories termed "Friday Gyan" and I circulate the same within my team. Almost every team member reads these stories and appreciate. I thought of taking this forward to the wider audience and try to publish these stories every Friday. 

Story:
A man sat at a subway station in Washington DC and started to play his violin; it was a cold January morning. Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed the musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped by 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 tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist and dance to his tunes. 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.

Out of the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped by and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32 in total. When he finished playing and the silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that around 1100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

 

This was a real life social experiment conducted by Washington Post to study about the perception, taste and priorities of people. And the violinist was none other than the world renowned, talented musician named Joshua Bell, playing the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell’s show was sold out at a theater in Boston for over $100 a seat.

 

Moral:
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? 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?