Stop and Smell...

The appreciation and affection once held for beauty is on a major decline.  Our standards have dropped, if not becoming near non-existent.  Recently, a musician by the name of Joshua Bell played two concerts.  One concert was in Boston with the average seat price costing around a hundred dollars while the other which was in Washington D.C. was free.  

Also, to this point I have failed to mention that Joshua Bell is one of the premier violinists in the world.  I think the choice as to which concert would have more a higher turnout is obvious.  I was wrong.  Because, the obvious choice for me was not the obvious choice for our nation's capitol.  

Joshua played for 45 minutes in the metro.  In that 45 minutes, only 6 people stopped to listen.  The crowd was too busy to stop and listen because they were on their way with their lives.  Granted, I'm not saying business for an entire city should come to a standstill because an artist was practicing his or her craft.  

I want to know if they appreciated it at all.  Twenty people gave him money, which totaled to the astounding amount of $32.  He made thirty-two dollars of playing his music on a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.  I say all of this to propose a question I think everyone should consider.

How much have we missed?  How much beauty and passion for music, painting, poetry, dance, etc. have we lost because we are too busy?  We are busy with kids, work, wife, ex-wife, school, or church.  We are too busy in our lives to enjoy the beauty of life.  We need simplicity.  

Do we appreciate that which is beautiful when we are not specifically looking for it?  Do we even care?  It is my opinion that the world would be a much better place if there were a few more days in which we enjoyed the world around us and the gifts that God has given us and a few less meetings.  Simplicity is an inward discipline, yet it continuously creates change in our lives.  

A simple life breeds freedom.  By understanding that all things are given by God and that we have done nothing outside of God's control we can shed the silly superstitions of the morning routine and enjoy the blessing that is life.  Tomorrow, if someone was to ask me, "How much have you missed?" I would be honored and humbled to reply, "Nothing."

Thanks, to Kit for posting the article on his blog!

The article that I have referred to can be found at http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=28442