le.petit.Frank fooling @round

輾轉從朋友那兒forward來了一個檔案
足以令人發自內心省思的一篇文章

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousand of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. Three minutes went by and 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 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. 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.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. 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 his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $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 priorities of people. The outlines were:

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?

The sad part came when an overzealous Washington permit person, asked Mr. Bell if he had a permit to perform in a public place. The answer was No! He was promptly issued a violation & fined $88.00 for this infraction! One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musician in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

如果我們不停下來好好地檢視我們身旁的一切
在我們還自以為是的為渾渾噩噩的生活找藉口
最終我們到底會失去了生活中多少的美好事物
家人？朋友？愛情？工作？優先次序孰輕孰重