(♡♮)

frayedends:

rachelftw:

my mom sent me this email. i thought i should post it here.

A man sat at a metro station in Washington,
D.C., and started to play the violin. He played six Bach pieces for about 45
minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, thousands of people
rushed through the station. Three minutes into his playing, a middle-aged
man noticed the music, slowed his pace and listened for a few seconds. 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. The one who paid the most attention
was a 3 year-old boy. Finally, his mother insisted that the child continue
to walk, but he turned his head to continue watching. 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 six people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20
gave him money but continued to walk at their normal pace. He collected $32.
When he finished playing no one applauded. No one knew this small fact: 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. Two days before
playing in the subway, Bell sold out a theater in Boston at $100 per seat.
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: whether we perceive beauty in a commonplace
environment at an inappropriate
hour. If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best
musicians in the world playing some of the best music ever written, we are
missing many other moments of beauty as well.