07 Jun 2016 Would You Have Stopped To Smell The Roses?
It Happened In January 2007
The bells were ringing at the concert hall, the audience took their seats, and stillness descended on the hall. A minute later, at 8 PM sharp, the side door to the stage opened and out came the star of the evening to the thunderous applause of the audience. The solo violinist performed impeccably, with such skill and sensitivity that brought some members of the audience to tears. He was playing on his beloved 1713 Stradivarius violin, which he bought a few years earlier for $3.5 million. The audience was in awe, listening intently to every note. They would have paid a lot more for their $100-dollar ticket if they had to. The experience was more than worth it.
The Man At The Subway Station
Friday, January 12th, 2007 was a regular morning in Washington DC. People were rushing to their desks at the various federal government offices in town. At the L’Enfant mall near the exit from the subway, there are sometimes musicians playing, hoping to collect a few dollars from the passing crowd. That Friday morning at 07:51 a young musician showed up near the exit. He was dressed in jeans, a dark t-shirt, and a baseball cap. He pulled out his violin, laid out the case open at his feet, and began to play. He played masterfully, six classical pieces in all. And then exactly 43 minutes later, he took the money out of the case, packed up his $3.5 million violins, and went on his way.
Who Was He?
Yes, you guessed it. The young violinist was Joshua Bell, the man who was once described as “playing like God”, and the violin was the same $3.5 million Stradivarius.
The “event” was orchestrated and filmed on a hidden camera, by the Washington Post as a “social experiment”.
In all 1071 people passed in front of the young man. Only 7 people stopped to listen for more than one minute. Twenty-seven (27) people gave money. Most of them took off even before their donation hit the violin case. Bell collected $32 and change during the 43-minute experiment.
Below is a link to Gene Weingarten’s Washington Post article describing the experiment. You can also watch a couple of video clips showing Bell playing at the subway door.
https://goo.gl/mfRaOt
Would You Have Stopped To Smell The Roses?
I am not going to preach to you about how “pre-occupied, busy, and rushed” of a society we had become. Or how difficult it had become for us to spend a few minutes a day just “being” instead of “busily doing” stuff.
But I invite you to reflect on this question: if you had five minutes to spare on your way to work, would you have stopped to listen to Josh, if you did not know it was him, or even if you did?
Please share your comments at:
www.thewilltochange.com/smell-the-roses
