Wednesday

What Are We Missing?


...he was nondescript: a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap. From a small case, he removed a violin. Placing the open case at his feet, he shrewdly threw in a few dollars and pocket change as seed money, swiveled it to face pedestrian traffic, and began to play.

The violinist played at L'Enfant Plaza Metro Station for 45 mintues. During that time, seven people stopped to listen and twenty-seven gave him money. Over a thousand never slowed their pace and most ignored him. Only one person recognized the world-famous virtuoso Joshua Bell.

Three days before his free recital at the Metro station, Joshua Bell sold out Boston's Symphony Hall. Two weeks later Bell played to a standing-room-only audience in North Bethesda.

Writing in the Washington Post, Gene Weingarten wonders:
If we can't take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to one of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever written; if the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to something like that -- then what else are we missing?
Read the entire article here:
Pearls Before Breakfast

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