Before reading the rest of the post, please watch this video (it takes less than three minutes):
The video in question was shot on a January day in 2007. The venue was a subway station in Washington D.C. during the morning rush hour.
As you can see from the video, almost everyone ignored the young violinist. They were in a hurry, and street musicians are a dime a dozen. In three-quarters of an hour only seven people stopped what they were doing to listen to the music for at least for a minute. Twenty-seven gave money, most of them on the run — for a total of $32 and change. That leaves 1,070 people who hurried by, oblivious, many only three feet away, few even turning to look
Only one woman recognized the performer: Joshua Bell, perhaps the greatest violinist of this generation.
Joshua played that morning a violin handcrafted in 1713 by Antonio Stradivari. It is worth 3.5 million dollars. He performed an incredibly difficult piece. And no-one listened.
A few days earlier Bell had sold out a large Boston theatre where good seats went for $100. But in the subway, people walked within three feet of the great musician playing the Stradivarus, and would not even break pace.
If you look at the video again, you may find yourself feeling what someone called “a certain soul shattering sadness” as you see the people totally oblivious to the beauty right in front of them.
It makes one wonder: what incredible, beautiful, mysterious things do I pass by each day, simply because I was not expecting to find beauty there?
Lord, open our eyes!
