Taking the Time

Picture a busy metro station. There are people going in every direction, heading to work, school, an appointment, and just about every other conceivable location. It’s not a hard visual. One cold day in January a man walked to the middle of such a station, took out a violin, and began to play.

Unlike most days, amid the usual sounds of rushing commuters, arriving and departing trains, the sounds of Johann Sebastian Bach carried on. Among the thousands of commuters some dropped money in his open case without pause, and even less stopped for a moment or two to listen; but never more than that. Forty-five minutes and thirty-two dollars later, this man packed up his violin and left, without applause, without acknowledgement, or even word of who he was.

That man was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented violinists our world has ever known. Days before he had played to a sold out crowd who had each paid close to a hundred dollars for a ticket to hear him perform on his violin of an estimated worth of $3.5 million. Incredible, isn’t it? This was a true experiment done by a newspaper in Boston. They were trying to see whether or not people would recognize beauty and talent in a setting other than one telling you it’s there. I heard this story secondhand in a conference, so I might be off as far as the particulars, but how long he played, and how much change was thrown in isn’t the point. I think it would be easy for most of us to picture ourselves as part of the crowd in that station. What I don’t know is whether or not I would have stopped. Though I like to imagine I would have, I’m left wondering what prestigious talent I might have passed by before without grasping what was there.

With each day I’m becoming more aware of what I believe to be an important aspect of life: We need to take the time to enjoy. We need to take care of the progression of our lives, yes that is true, but I’m fairly certain that at least one point of this existence is recognizing what incredible things surround us. I don’t want to take a critic’s or even history’s word for how good or bad something is; I want to experience it for myself.