Jan 25 2009
Panoramic or Pixelated: What Do You See?
Ask yourself this question - and in trying to be as objectively fair as possible really be honest with yourself - do you pay attention to the little things? Do you witness something remarkable happen every single day, even if its in the quirky, peculiarity of life? Do you absorb life to its fullest or are you absorbed in trying to fill up your life?
Its probably fair to say that most of us would answer positively to these questions. Granted, we are all busy people, but sure, we all like to think that we aren’t so caught up in the “bigger picture” that we fail to see the remarkable details. Sadly, our attention spans are not what wish they were. . .
Not long ago, a remarkably interesting experiment was conducted about this very concept. If you have the time you should really read the entire article on this, but for now, here is the condensed version:
“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 thousands 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 musician playing. 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, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?”
So. . .what do you see?
(*Picture above not Joshua Bell himself)
- IgniteTheMind
At first glance, light through leaves.
I see rhythm and repetition in the bark of the tree; leaves backlit so brightly they may as well be suns of their own, particularly when offset by the wood. If fire were to grow on trees, are the maple leaves here what it would look like?
I find the shadows on the leaves rather interesting. If the sun shines through them this brightly, why do some overshadow others? Are there leaves of a different angle I’m missing?
I probably wouldn’t notice things like a famous musician playing on a street corner, since I don’t pay attention to who’s who on which instrument unless I have a personal history with them; I would, however, notice the musician, and would tilt my head to listen until I could no longer hear. I do notice the sunlight through the clouds on the way back from the grocery store, and the lizards sunning themselves on the wall; the hummingbirds challenging me for territory as I go on my daily walk, and the way the flowers hang over the sidewalk. Who says the greatest things are ones to which we can put big names?
Catana and Ravyn,
You both make different but important observations! I’ll tell ya - this is why I love my readers! And truth be told, we all have a hard time absorbing every detail, but we need a reminder from time to time, as Ravyn said, to look at the things that matter most, which are often intangible.