Re: PERCEPTION

PERCEPTION=/span>

. . . Something To =hink About . . .

In Washington, =C, at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, this man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After about 3 minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to me=t his schedule.=span style="font-size: lOpt; font-family: Arial; color: black;">

The violinist rece=ved his first dollar. A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.=A0

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A young man leaned=against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

A 3-year-old boy st=pped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mothe= pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole tim=. This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to m=ve on quickly.

The musician played=continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money, but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed and no one applauded. There was no recognition a= all.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world.=A0 He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold•out a thea=er in Boston where the seats averaged $200 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post a= part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people&=39;s priorities.

*I= a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

9f so, do we stop to appreciate it?

*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

no,, exacly the opposite,, most people that travel the subway , can't tell shit from shinola

no, not upper at all. just informed. doesn't make it any more valuab=e as a person, but i want an educated man operating on me as opposed to a =itch doctor. not that i think he is a superior person, but he probably =nows more about what does not work

But quality is obvious. Everyone recognizes it. No?

So there is, t=en, an upper class? And you are of it? I see. I am always suspicious of evaluations of life which=include the evaluator's fellows as the superiors. Germans thought they were th= super race for a few years and Jews have thought that forever.

But, as we all=know, bearing survival in mind, it's us cockroaches.