You may have seen it but well worth repeating!
Washington DC Metro Station on a cold January morning.
He 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.
Only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace.
He collected $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 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 Joshua Bell sold out a theater 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 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:
July 31st, 2010
7 Comments on "What are we MISSING"
Oh my god!!!! I love this story… it is soo true and ive had so many arguments with people about why we dont just apreciate the small things… welll they arnt small things… but people cant seem to look past the "image"… the wrapping paper…..Isnt it amazing that the "wrapping" paper of that man stopped people from thinking that he was worth stopping and l;ooking at.
Wow…. absolutely amazing….
Yes as that proves most of us just go day by day doing the same old thing without even taking any notice of what is happening around us. It is so sad that we don't stop and smell the roses more often.
Amazing story…we have a 20 year old daughter studing art and art theory and she says we miss so much around us. One assignment was to see if people notice pieces of art placed in the city of Melbourne. All those that she questioned said they did not even see any art and certainly would not call it art as it was just there in the street so it cant be worth taking notice of.
Is it that we dont see or do we assume that you have to go and pay to see something of value. My thought for the day.
Thank you for making me stop my crazy day to contemplate a simple thought that will make me see the world around me
I guess I have always been blessed to notice the beautiful things around us, whether it's a tree or flower or a person or archeological structure of a building, an animal, the list is endless and limitless. But one thing I have always missed is sharing it with someone, yes I've met people that appreciate beauty in all its forms but these people are few and far between and the tragedy of it is that when only one person notices and the other 50 people don't, it diminishes the beauty and the meaning somehow. Even worse, is when absolutely NO ONE notices, how sad that is.
My goodness, what an amazing story.
We need to stop and smell the roses, we need to enjoy the moment.
Hi im David after reading alot of the comments its funny how things work out my eldest son Shayne about 10-11 months ago was told he had Hogkins disease stage two and as a father we gave every cent we had without thinking as you do my son has 3 children twins 6yrs and now a new daughter 3-4 months and in the last 3-4 weeks we got the news that he was cancer free but what has amazed me the most ever since he was told how money has come our way at the right time not just once but over the time 4 and 5 times every time we started to stress and being a spiritualist asking spirit for help honestly the things that have happen to make it possible for us to help Shaynes family the first time i thought that was lucky he was about to loose there rented home and end up on the street in Kalgoorlie not the nicest place to happen but at that eleventh hour we received several thousand dollars that would save them for 5-6months then Shayne received money just as that money ran out everybody should watch the secret DVD as for what you need ask and keep the faith it really is amazing how much you receive when we give from the heart .I know that what your giving away will be returned 10 fold so what you have done giving everything away you better tie yourself to something because when karma comes knocking he will have truck load for you both god bless and good luck from Brenda,David,Celia and William
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