Month: April 2007

Greg sent me this Washington Post article this morning, and once I started reading I was hooked!

No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the (D.C.) Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made. His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities — as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?

It proved a fascinating read for me. Not only because of the philosophical principals and poetry that he refers to – but he even compares the event to “Koyaanisqatsi”. (so we aren’t the only ones who have seen it!)

This is something I have been battling with for quite some time. With everybody so “plugged in” – do we ever really see and appreciate whats going on around us? Is it modern life that keeps us from recognizing greatness? Or is it ourselves?

If we can’t take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to one of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever written; if the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to something like that — then what else are we missing?

Would I have recognized the greatness? Or am I, too, blind to the that which surrounds me…