Do you recognize beauty when you see it? During this Christmas season, are you too busy and stressed out to enjoy your family and friends? Do you make snap judgments about other people based on their appearances or the setting in which you meet them? Do you take time to be thankful for your blessings, or are you preoccupied with your problems?
On a cold January morning about two years ago, a man sat down in a subway station in Washington, D.C. and started to play the violin. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. It was rush hour at the time, and it was estimated that more than a thousand people walked through the subway station while the man was playing the violin.
After about three minutes, 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 continued to walk without stopping. 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 to the man playing the violin was a three-year-old boy. His mother hurried the boy along, but not before he stopped to look at the violinist. As the boy’s mother pushed him forward, the boy turned his head to look back at the violinist. Several other children also paused to watch and listen, but their parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only six people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. The musician collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded. There was no recognition.
The violinist in the subway station 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. Two days before playing in the subway station, Bell gave a sold-out performance at a theater in Boston. The average cost of a seat was $100. Bell is a winner of the Avery Fisher Prize for outstanding achievement in classical music. He normally performs more than 200 engagements a year.
The Washington Post arranged for Joshua Bell to play incognito in the subway station as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and the priorities of people. One of the possible conclusions from this experiment 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?
A friend sent me this story several months ago. I checked it out on Snopes.com, and it is a true story. According to Snopes.com, “Many a marketing survey has been conducted to gauge how presentation affects consumer perceptions of quality, and quite a few such surveys have found that people will frequently designate one of two identical items as being distinctly better than the other simply because it is packaged or presented more attractively.” In the case of the experiment conduced by The Washington Post, it is clear the overwhelming majority of people could not distinguish between a world-class violinist and an ordinary street musician because of the setting in which the performance was being conducted.
The Washington Post won a Pulitzer Prize for its article about the violinist in the subway station. Gene Weingarten, the reporter who wrote the article, described the experiment as follows:
“Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters in any urban area where the occasional street performer is part of the cityscape. Do you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt and irritation, aware of your cupidity but annoyed by the unbidden demand on your time and wallet? Do you throw in a buck, just to be polite? Does your decision change if he’s really bad? What if he’s really good? Do you have time for beauty? Shouldn’t you? What’s the moral mathematics of the moment?
If you had been in the subway station on the cold January morning when this experiment was conducted, would you have stopped to enjoy the music? Would you have recognized the quality and beauty of the music being played? As for me, I must admit, regrettably, that I probably would have been one of those who rushed by without noticing.
There is a lesson here for all of us, especially during this hurried time of year. Find the beauty that exists all around you. Stop and enjoy the moment. Be aware of the meaning of the Christmas season. Be thankful for what you have. Praise God for the gifts He has given to all of us.
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