still from video posted on the Washington Post's websiteIt won’t be often that you see an article about a social/psychological experiment turning up as the main subject of a post on this blog. So please take it seriously when I give you the URL to a Washington Post article from 2007 at the bottom of this post. The article is called ‘Pearls before Breakfast’.
It is a long article, but believe me it is worth reading every single word. In fact the length of the article is bound up with what I at least see as the main point: that our rat race world is doing something terrible to us. It is causing us grownups to miss the beauty that children are instinctively drawn towards.
A world-class musician plays a sublime selection of music on a Stradivarius during the morning commute at a subway station. What reaction should we have expected, and what actually happened? The reporters involved could have simplistically disdained the barbarians who failed to appreciate the quality of the free concert, but there is more to it. This wasn’t just about people not recognizing a famous musician because they didn’t expect to see him there, or not caring about the quality of the music. The individual stories of the commuters of all walks of life are fascinating. And yes, it was the children who without exception were attracted to the music, heads turning as they tugged against their parents’ headlong progress to wherever they were going that seemed so important at the time. (you can listen to the full performance here)
I don’t listen to a lot of music, for what might seem like an odd reason to some. I am deeply affected by a lot of music. If I listened to more, one of two things would happen: either I would get inured to it, or I would end up a basket case. It isn’t uncommon for music to provoke me to tears. It’s less common for an article –about- music (or anything else for that matter) to have that effect on me.
Why am I classing this article as a story of Spiritual Refreshment? Partly it’s the humility of the musician, Joshua Bell, which reminds me of that same ‘getting out of the way’ I wrote about in Benjamin Bagby. Partly it’s the wonder of beauty and art that can touch something in us humans and make us aware of transcendence. And partly it’s the always-wonderful spectacle of little children showing a wisdom that the big people have forgotten.
It is a long article, but believe me it is worth reading every single word. In fact the length of the article is bound up with what I at least see as the main point: that our rat race world is doing something terrible to us. It is causing us grownups to miss the beauty that children are instinctively drawn towards.
A world-class musician plays a sublime selection of music on a Stradivarius during the morning commute at a subway station. What reaction should we have expected, and what actually happened? The reporters involved could have simplistically disdained the barbarians who failed to appreciate the quality of the free concert, but there is more to it. This wasn’t just about people not recognizing a famous musician because they didn’t expect to see him there, or not caring about the quality of the music. The individual stories of the commuters of all walks of life are fascinating. And yes, it was the children who without exception were attracted to the music, heads turning as they tugged against their parents’ headlong progress to wherever they were going that seemed so important at the time. (you can listen to the full performance here)
I don’t listen to a lot of music, for what might seem like an odd reason to some. I am deeply affected by a lot of music. If I listened to more, one of two things would happen: either I would get inured to it, or I would end up a basket case. It isn’t uncommon for music to provoke me to tears. It’s less common for an article –about- music (or anything else for that matter) to have that effect on me.
Why am I classing this article as a story of Spiritual Refreshment? Partly it’s the humility of the musician, Joshua Bell, which reminds me of that same ‘getting out of the way’ I wrote about in Benjamin Bagby. Partly it’s the wonder of beauty and art that can touch something in us humans and make us aware of transcendence. And partly it’s the always-wonderful spectacle of little children showing a wisdom that the big people have forgotten.
read it here . Oh, and take the time to enjoy. (hat tip to the Facebook group for Take Back Your Time)
4 comments:
We saw this experiment and resulting article awhile ago - fascinating!
This article was just amazingly well written and fascinating!!
oh, BTW, I discovered after that the article won the Pulitzer. Well deserved!
Thanks, Donna , for drawing my attention to this. Read the article and listened to the concert both. Quite a comment on our modern society ... urgh! Has our society "advanced" to the point where we no longer yield any room to aesthetics and their appreciation? I most fervently hope not!
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