Friday, April 13, 2007

Post Magazine: Too Busy to Stop and Hear the Music

Post Magazine: Too Busy to Stop and Hear the Music - washingtonpost.com

Follow-up questions and answers between the author of the Joshua Bell story and his readers. An interesting question -- he said his story made a lot of people cry, and he wants to know why.

This article made me think about how more often than not true beauty is outside the reach of the majority without time, patience, and diligent work to understand it. It might be the case that people were just too busy to even listen, or it might be the case that only people who listen to classical music could enjoy what they were hearing. Probably only people who study and critique classical music could truly appreciate what they were hearing. Does that make it any less beautiful? What does it mean that so much beauty is outside the reach of the masses?

Update: Now I feel like I totally missed the point. One of his readers wrote in this:

Washington, DC: I'm one of the criers. My first answer is I don't know why I did. After further thought, I realized that we Americans or really people in general rarely do whats really important, instead we waste our days doing things we don't like, just to meet ends meat. We give up our dreams just....well I don't know why. Maybe because we are scared. I work on the Hill and I think every day what it would be like to pack it all up and move to California and make wine. I want my life to have meaning and even though I get great meaning from my relationships, my work and my busy pace really sometimes makes me sick. I think the tears are from not knowing whats important and not using our important time on this earth wisely.


Sniff.

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