Stop and smell the roses...and hear the music.

On January 12th, 2007, morning commuters at the L'Enfant Plaza Station of the subway line in Washington, D.C., passed by a young man, simply dressed, playing the violin.  Unbeknownst to the people rushing to get to their individual destinations, the man playing the violin was Joshua Bell, one of the foremost classical violinists in the world.  He played six intricate Bach pieces for about 45 minutes, on his personal 1713 Stradivarius violin (for which he paid 3.5 million dollars). During that time about 2000 people went through the station.  Only a handful stopped for a brief moment.  About 20 people deposited some money - Joshua Bell collected about 32 dollars.

The above scenario was set up by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment  (The Washington Post won a Pulitzer Prize in the feature writing category for Gene Weingarten's April 2007 story about this experiment).  The questions that the experiment tried to address were:

In a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour, are we able to perceive beauty, and  would we actually stop to appreciate it?  Are we able recognize talent in an unexpected context?
So if we don't have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the most beautiful classical music ever written, on one of the finest instruments ever made... how many other things are we missing?

How often do we rush during our daily pursuits, our minds fruitlessly focused either on past events or our thoughts filled with the anxious anticipation of events still to come in the future...and as a result, missing the precious moments of the "here and now".  How often do we forget to really stop and smell the roses...and hear the music.  Is there any surprise then, that so many find life unfulfilling, ungratifying and overwhelming?  

Perhaps by trying to enjoy the journey, instead of just focusing on the end results and completion of our set goals, we can begin to see the beauty of all of those precious moments that make up our day - the sunrise and sunset, the rain, wind, sun and snow, the smiles and words of our children, the company of our close friends, and the myriad of incredible and wonderful things that the universe is constantly sending our way....just waiting to grab our attention.  If only we can just stop for a moment to appreciate it all....