Smell the roses, hear the Strad

I walked around the grounds of Parliament today at lunch hour. I watched the Centennial Flame, and read the dates on the provincial plaques. There was a woman doing yoga on the front lawn, amid the flurry of passers-by and idly strolling RCMP officers, while the clock tower struck a quarter-to-one. A few snowflakes fell lazily over downtown Ottawa today, and I was alive and happy to experience it all as I soaked up the early spring sunshine.

What a mystery this world is, and what a gift! How much do we miss everyday, scurrying off to our posts with nary a glance to left or right, with no time to appreciate the beauty around us. We are so caught up in complexity, in technology, in haste …

In January 2007, the world-renowned virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell donned a baseball cap and jeans, and went busking in a subway station in another “government town”: Washington, D.C. For 43 minutes, among the hustle and bustle of the subway during morning rush-hour, he played his heart out on a $3.5 million Stradivarius. He played Bach, Schubert, Ponce; masterpieces of melody and song.

The whole stunt was recorded on video camera. How many of the 1,097 passers-by stopped to listen? How many of them even noticed his playing at all?

Only 7 (article here)! Not including, interestingly enough, each and every child that passed - enthralled - but propelled along by annoyed parents.

The story frightens me… because although I hope - beyond all hope - that if I would have been in the Washington subway that day, I would have stopped to recognize beauty for what it was, I cannot be sure. I cannot know absolutely that I would not have continued on my way in a rush, going to wherever I was headed, oblivious.

And that is the deepest sadness and the darkest blindness I can imagine.