Recently, I came across a post on the Washington Post’s website dated April 8, 2007 — Oh man, how could I miss this for close to three years? — titled Pearls before Breakfast.

The story goes like this:

Joshua Bell — if you don’t know him, he’s a child prodigy violinist and once occupied at least 20% of my music library — was invited to play in L’Enfant Plaza, the heart of Washington DC, at morning peak hour where hundreds of people rush in and out of the station.

The only difference? He’s going to do it incognito, wearing regular clothing.

He played six classical pieces in forty-five minutes, during which approximately a thousand people passed through the station, and out of these, only six people stopped to listen, and then only for a very short while.

Most enthusiasm were displayed by young children, several of whom were tugged on by their parents, asking them to stop listening, but without success.

This made me think, are we really this busy? That we just chose to walk past such beautiful things that flash by? Shouldn’t we be more sensitive to our surroundings?

This rhetorical question has been answered by many but demonstrated by few. So I guess, I should now be more alert to my surroundings and not judge someone by their actions, but rather, by the quality of his works.