Stop and Listen to the Music

I came across this video from a post that a friend put on Facebook. Usually I don't really pay attention to those "chain" posts. You know the ones that have been posted and reposted and shared and what not and then you wonder if they're even real. Where do some of those come from anyway? But for some reason I actually read this one, and then I looked it up. Turns out that this story was true.

Back in 2007, the Washington Post did a story...it was really more like a social experiment. They wanted to know if we would still recognize beauty if it was inconvenient. At 7:51am on a Friday, a young man set up post at the L'Enfant Plaza Station of the Washington Metro. This was of course, rush hour, and most people were busy heading to their respective jobs. The young man pulled out a violin and began playing, with an open case, like many street musicians have probably done before him. But this young man wasn't your ordinary street musician. His name is Joshua Bell and he is one of the greatest concert violinist in the world. Just three days before this little experiment, Bell had played to a sold out audience at Boston's Symphony Hall where seats were going for a minimum of $100 a piece! Of the 1,097 people that passed him by that morning only seven people stopped for over a minute to listen!

I don't know why this story stuck with me today but it really did. I couldn't stop thinking about it. I think I have watched the video about ten times and every time I do I can't help but wonder, would I have stopped to listen to the music? Would you?

I think we could all stand to take more time to stop and listen to the music.