TBD

TBD on Ning

            PERCEPTION

. . . Something To Think About . . .
 
 
       THE SITUATION
 
 In Washington , DC , at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, this man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes.  During that time, approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.  After about 3 minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing.  He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.
 
About 4 minutes later:
  
 The violinist received his first dollar.  A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.
  
At 6 minutes:
 
 A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.
 
At 10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly.  The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time.  This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly.
 
At 45 minutes:
 
 The musician played continuously.  Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while.  About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.  The man collected a total of $32.
 
After 1 hour:
 
 He finished playing and silence took over.  No one noticed and no one applauded.  There was no recognition at all.
 
 
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest 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, Joshua Bell sold-out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.
 
 
 This is a true story.  Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.
 
This experiment raised several questions:

      
*In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
 
      
*If so, do we stop to appreciate it?
 
      
*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?
 
One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made . . .
 
How many other things are we missing as we rush through life?

Why do we perceive so little around us?

Tags: 40, hurry, music, over, relax, rush

Views: 11

Replies to This Discussion

Since the time I lost my job a year and a half ago, I have made great progress in stopping to smell the roses. It took awhile to wind down from the career, but I am enjoying myself immensely now. I'm taking the time to meet people, and more importantly, listen to them. I'm taking time to enjoy my surroundings. When people talk about entering "The Golden Years", they aren't kidding. Life is what you make it, but I gotta say, I'm happy and in a good place.
I think beauty perceived is an individual thing. While I enjoy and acknowledge beautiful things around me I probably wouldn't have stopped either for I know nothing of Bach....nor would I have any idea what the violin was worth. Probably no one else could have guessed it's worth either. For that matter I have always believed it's not the cost or so called worth of the tool in any profession, but what a good craftsman can do with it. If that had been Charlie Daniels playing a hundred dollar fiddle I would have stopped. I'm sure I have missed lots of beauty in my life, but I have also been blessed with the recognition of much beauty also.......many different kinds of beauty...enough to keep me entertained and amused and on a fairly even keel.
I think that many of us, myself included, embrace the gifts & blessings that come from experiencing painful times or hardships. Over the years I've learned to stop & smell the roses, to appreciate the little things, to value what is really important. And what is really important to me, what I value, is engaging w/others, moments.... those perfect moments when God or love or miracles or magic, or whatever one might name it are present, palpable. That's what's really of value to me.
I used the above as an example. What is beautiful is determined by our life experiences and education. Perhaps indoctrination. But surely, in Washington, DC you would think that there would be someone riding the metro that would recognize as worthy of a few minutes time, what others had paid good money to hear.
And it could possibly be this........something in our brain tells us that just because we paid big bucks to hear or see it, then it is beautiful, whether it was or not. Maybe in a different environment such as the Metro Station where no monatary value was placed on it, it wasn't near as good as it was cracked up to be.
Just a thought...
Why do we perceive so little around us?

Life gets in the way?
Work to get to, children to tend to, schedules to meet...

I may have stopped to listen, but I probably would not have known who he was. I would have probably appreciated the music, but not known exactly what he was playing.

I try to pay attention to what occurs around me. I try to appreciate the worth of the people I encounter. I try to wonder at the beauty of the nature that surrounds me. I think that most times I succeed, but probably not as much as I should. I don't know why...
I'm probably so always-on-the-lookout for transcendent beauty that it skips right past me while I'm focused on something else that doesn't pan out.

But that's cool. Beauty is all around us, constantly. What makes it so valuable is not it's availability, but it's capriciousness and it's transience, our own inability to recognize it until it's too late. We may miss it, but it was there and it will be there for somebody else. The worst thing you can do with something beautiful is to "capture" it and keep it all to yourself.

That's why I do the radio thing. Music was not meant to be hoarded and gloated over like Scrooge McDuck, it was meant to be shared. I'm just doing my part. (Okay, okay. Some - Alright, a LOT - of what I play doesn't fit into conventional definitions of "beauty" - Unless you find invigorating mischief "beautiful". If so, then yer In Like Flint.)
They smell different today.
Then take time to ogle the young male hardbodies that jog past you, Pru. Take time to smell the mushrooms growing in your crawlspace - they just want to live and be loved, too. Set aside a few moments to appreciate the spectacle as a hypocritical evangelist goes down in scandal-fanned flames. (Well, okay - That's more up MY alley.) Revel in the glory of a time-lapse video of an LSD-dosed spider weaving a wacky web - It's pretty freaky-deaky, really.
I know what sex feels like, but I still like to take the time to experience it again. I know what good beer tastes like, but I like to experience that taste again. Knowing an emotion or sensation does not cause me to not want to experience it again. Well, I guess there are many that I do not want to experience again. But those are the ones that I did not enjoy. And I am usually up for an enjoyable new experience. I hope I take the time to seek them out, and recognize them when exposed to them.
Reply by CWO3ROBBIE
"I know what sex feels like, but I still like to take the time to experience it again. I know what good beer tastes like, but I like to experience that taste again. Knowing an emotion or sensation does not cause me to not want to experience it again. Well, I guess there are many that I do not want to experience again. But those are the ones that I did not enjoy. And I am usually up for an enjoyable new experience. I hope I take the time to seek them out, and recognize them when exposed to them."

I just hope that I recognize sex if I am ever exposed to it again.

*sigh*
OK, so it isn't a rose and doesn't have a smell, but it sure confounded my neighbor and maybe even scared him a little that I was standing on the potting shed table singing bibbity-bobbity boo as I took pictures from the inside out.
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