Have You Sold Your Soul for a Weekend?
Your soul is worth more than a weekend. Banality followed by blindness is the side effect of Slowlane institutionalization.
In 2007 on a cold January morning, a violinist stationed himself in a Washington, DC, train station and played six classical pieces from Bach. Except this was no ordinary violinist and it was no ordinary violin. This was an incognito Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world, who nights earlier had played to a sold-out concert hall in Boston for nearly $100 a ticket. As Joshua played his $3.5 million violin in the midst of the morning commuter rush, approximately 2,000 people passed through the station, most of them on their way to work.
He played continuously for 45 minutes. Only six people stopped to listen briefly. No crowd formed. About 20 folks gave money but continued onward at a brisk pace. When he finished, there was silence except for the rhythmic hustle of a busy train station. No applause. No crowd. No recognition.
This experiment, conducted by the Washington Post, uncovers something incredibly powerful-and disturbing. Not even the greatest musician in the world can illuminate the blinding depths of the rat race and those entrenched by its indifference.
Have you become so numbed by making a living that the living has been sucked out of your life? Are you so blinded by Monday through Friday that any beauty that sings before you is muted? The train commuters come and go like zombies-they're oblivious to the splendor of Monday through Friday. Yet, what if this experiment occurred on Saturday; would its outcome be any different?
Your soul is worth more than a weekend. Banality followed by blindness is the side effect of Slowlane institutionalization.
In 2007 on a cold January morning, a violinist stationed himself in a Washington, DC, train station and played six classical pieces from Bach. Except this was no ordinary violinist and it was no ordinary violin. This was an incognito Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world, who nights earlier had played to a sold-out concert hall in Boston for nearly $100 a ticket. As Joshua played his $3.5 million violin in the midst of the morning commuter rush, approximately 2,000 people passed through the station, most of them on their way to work.
He played continuously for 45 minutes. Only six people stopped to listen briefly. No crowd formed. About 20 folks gave money but continued onward at a brisk pace. When he finished, there was silence except for the rhythmic hustle of a busy train station. No applause. No crowd. No recognition.
This experiment, conducted by the Washington Post, uncovers something incredibly powerful-and disturbing. Not even the greatest musician in the world can illuminate the blinding depths of the rat race and those entrenched by its indifference.
Have you become so numbed by making a living that the living has been sucked out of your life? Are you so blinded by Monday through Friday that any beauty that sings before you is muted? The train commuters come and go like zombies-they're oblivious to the splendor of Monday through Friday. Yet, what if this experiment occurred on Saturday; would its outcome be any different?
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