A recent article in the Washington Post describes a fascinating experiment: what would happen if the world’s greatest violin player set up camp at a Metro station in rush-hour Washington D.C.? Master musician Joshua Bell played anonymously for an hour on a $3.5 million violin in a D.C. subway station as part of an experiment to see how commuters would respond. Would busy commuters notice him? Dismiss him, toss him some spare change, gather to listen? Would anybody even notice that they were being treated to masterful renditions of some of the finest music in human history? The Post article sums up the questions:
Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters in any urban area where the occasional street performer is part of the cityscape: Do you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt and irritation, aware of your cupidity but annoyed by the unbidden demand on your time and your wallet? Do you throw in a buck, just to be polite? Does your decision change if he’s really bad? What if he’s really good? Do you have time for beauty? Shouldn’t you? What’s the moral mathematics of the moment?
I don’t want to spoil the experiment for you, so go read the article to find out what happened. Then head over and read some excellent commentary at Jeff Berryman’s blog. He laments that our culture’s busy-ness is killing our ability to appreciate true beauty when we see or hear it. From his post:
Beauty is common; the experience of it is rare. The idea of “refined taste” is way, way out of fashion these days and smacks of elitism and social construction, but maybe “refined taste” is nothing but the willingness to sit more intentionally with our own experience. Don’t they say that meals are better if eaten slowly? The point of the article in the Post was simply that great art usually requires a context. The sadness for me is that our lives rarely provide such contexts, and we seldom take the time or trouble to create such contexts. We miss so, so much.Greg Wolfe told me once that there are multiple poverties. I can’t help but believe the poverties of beauty, of art, and of soul are deeply connected to the poverties of hunger and peace. Everyone understands the need for food. The same cannot be said of the need for beauty.
What’s your response to the experiment? Were you surprised at the results? If you had been ambling through the Metro station that morning on the way to work, would you have noticed the musical brilliance off in the corner? Do you agree with Berryman’s idea that we have become a “culture of glancers” who rarely stop to appreciate beauty, and who are experiencing a type of spiritual poverty as a result?
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July 11, 2007 at 15:28
This article was incredibly well written by the washington post and it caused to swell up in me a chord of sadness as I realized that I too might have walked by. The sadness was doubled at the children that desired to stop but the parents moved them on. How often do I stop my children from admiring the beauty of God? I am reminded of the book _Windows_of_the_Soul_ by Ken Gire.
Thinking about it, this reminds me of a lesson I did for the children in a Sunday School class. I first showed them a beautiful photograph I had taken of a beautiful sunflower against a perfect blue sky. I asked them to describe where they thought it was taken. Imagine their surprise when I showed them the next photograph. It was a wide angle shot showing that the flower was in the corner of a parking lot in the midst of mess close by the church. There is beauty all around, we must be diligent to look for it. How sad that the teacher forgets the lesson…..
July 11, 2007 at 15:49
Alan—agreed about the Post article. It’s really well written and moving. Great journalism.
July 11, 2007 at 15:55
Art is about context as much as anything.
Would a Pollock be anything but scribbles on a subway wall?
Andy Warhol’s Brillo boxes are stacked all over grocery store shelves and they aren’t art there.
Picasso’s Don Quixote would be a napkin doodle in a pile of construction paper.
Yes, he’s brilliant, but we are trained to respect context (positively or negatively).
July 11, 2007 at 19:21
If people don’t stop when seeing/hearing an artist on the street it doesn’t mean they don’t appreciate the art form, it’s just that it is not the right time for them to stop. I don’t care how great of a performance takes place – if I have an appointment I’m not going to be late for it. On the other hand, if I am just strolling at leasure, I would be very happy to stop and listen to a street performer, even if they are not considered by critics as great.
My favorite street musician is the ‘Saw Lady’ whom I see frequantly at Times Square. The fact that I don’t always stop to listen to her doesn’t mean that I don’t think she is a great musician. She is wonderful. But if I have an appointment, I can’t stop and be fired for being late, just because a great performer was performing on my way!
July 12, 2007 at 09:43
For me, the most moving parts of the article were the interviews with Mortenson and Picarello, who knew that something extraordinarily beautiful was in their midst even though they couldn’t stop for too long. When I read their reactions, I am inspired to be a vessel for God’s beauty on a continual basis, and I am reminded that God is like the reader of the article- the omniscient observer who is our eternal audience, and “working as unto the Lord” pleases Him, even if nobody else ever appreciates or even understands who we are serving. Worship, service, compassion, exhortation—all must be done full-bore! Bell didn’t want to play half-heartedly… neither should we allow ourselves to pray or fast or give or love or worship half-heartedly, although many times those things are done in secret as well (and the first three SHOULD be done in secret – Matt.6).
July 12, 2007 at 10:08
@ Michelle:
The article/discussion speaks to people’s priorities in our culture though. The “right time” is a completely subjective term and easy way to rationalize our inattentive American behavior. We don’t take the time to stop and smell the roses anymore; for most of us the “right time” is never! I think this is part of the point of the experiment.
July 12, 2007 at 16:05
I bet people would be far more apt to take a nice loooooong look of there was a girl in a bikini showing off her dancing talents…how sad.
August 1, 2007 at 17:43
How often do we allow the time. It does seem that we are always pushing to use up every spare minute for some type of task. My wife and I are funny this way. We commute together. I like to leave 40 minutes before we need to be at work, 20 minutes works for her. If we go her way and pass by some young wildlife, we can’t stop. With me at the wheel, we can watch the young horses play in the morning. Make sure that you allow time for the unexpected joys so that when they do come your way, you get to enjoy them.
And please don’t tell my wife I wrote this, that could hurt : )