Carpe diem

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 musicianplaying. 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, tickets for Joshua Bell's performance at a theater in Boston were sold out and the seats averaged $100.

Cette histoire de Joshua Bell, jouant incognito dans une station de métro est vraie et a circulé sur de nombreux blogs déja. L'évènement a été organisé par le Washington Post dans le cadre d’un enquête sur la perception, les goûts et les priorités d’action des gens.

Les questions étaient :

-  dans un environnement commun, à une heure inappropriée, pouvons-nous percevoir la beauté ?

-  Nous arrêtons-nous pour l’apprécier ?

-  Pouvons-nous reconnaître le talent dans un contexte inattendu ?

Une des conclusions possibles de cette expérience pourrait être que si nous n’avons pas le temps pour nous arrêter et écouter l’un des meilleurs musiciens du monde jouant quelques-unes des plus belles partitions jamais composées, il y a de fortes chances pour que nous passions dans la vie à côté de bien d'autres choses exceptionnelles sans nous en rendre compte.

Enjoy life!

Carpe diem!