By Erika C.
On a January morning, hundreds of people walked past what appeared to be an ordinary street musician outside the metro station in Washington DC. What the people didn’t know was that the musician was Joshua Bell, one of the most famous violinists in the world, who was playing incognito for an experiment set up by The Washington Post. Bell, who sold out a theater at $100 a seat the night before, and was playing on a violin worth $3.5 million, agreed to do the experiment as a way to examine the priorities and values of people today. He was not recognized, only made $32 the entire time he was playing, and hardly received any notice at all. In journalism class, we read the article on Bell and were asked to write about our response to the irony of routine existence.
Even when I was getting high, I had this infatuation with beautiful places. There is a waterfall by my house beautiful, hidden, and quiet–and I would escape there whenever I needed some time to think and be alone. Although my mind was clouded with drugs and alcohol, something about being in a place so beautiful made me feel extremely calm.
After I came to The Family Foundation School, I am sad to say that I was so angry for being here, that I lost my ability to appreciate beautiful things like that in my life. After engaging in my own recovery, cleaning up my side of the street, and dealing with the resentments that were spiritually killing me; my eyes once again have cleared and I enjoy nothing more than sitting on the stoop outside Lake House watching the sky turn dark with the mountains in the distance.
In journalism class, I read the article on Joshua Bell. I was disturbed, but not surprised by the results of the experiment. When asked to write a paper about my reaction, I knew that it was necessary to talk about how, as people, we don’t appreciate the little things in life anymore.
Every person had a decision to make while walking past Bell. Occasionally people would slow up while walking, perhaps throwing a couple of bucks in his case. Only a few people took time to listen, and most of them were children who were quickly whisked away by their parents.
It reminded me of how blind we can be to what is beautiful and right in front of us. I think that as a culture we are always in a hurry, sometimes to go nowhere. We have tons of excuses why we shouldn’t stop and listen to the sweet music being played by a musician on the street. Just because he is there, we think of him as homeless, or a bum, or dangerous.
We shoo our children along, warning them not to stop and talk to a man we know nothing about. Or we throw a dollar in his instrument case, refusing to make eye contact and not slowing our pace. We don’t dare stop and listen to the melody he is playing, for fear he might clobber us over the head, take our money, and run. (A fear that is almost irrational, but stranger things than that have happened.) We think so badly of each other; judging others constantly.
I have to think for myself: would I have stopped and listened to this man’s music? Having walked the streets of New York City many times, I am guilty of walking past a struggling musician, not giving him the time of day. I have also been that little girl, being shooed and pulled away by my father (although I managed a few times to get some money into the guitar case.)
I would like to think of myself, at this point in my life, as the kind of person who would want to hear the man’s music. I no longer want to be blind to all that is beautiful around me. I have spent too much time oblivious to what is important in my life. For years I lived a life of dishonesty and selfish desires and today I can’t afford to be blinded by those things.
It shouldn’t matter that Bell is a famous violinist, or that his instrument was worth $3.5 million, but unfortunately this is a reality. It is so important to take time to appreciate the simple things in life and take notice of the beauty around us. Joshua Bell may be posing as just another musician, trying to get noticed by the right person, but he can teach us a lot about how we shouldn’t “judge a book by its cover.”
