TAKE SOME TIME TO TAKE IT EASY!
     Usually, I take wisdom from a reliable source pretty seriously, whether it comes from my calendar, a book, a friend or an email.
I often get emails from alternative health gurus, organization consultants and simplicity experts. Often the most important message comes in the subject line. This week I received an email titled, "Take Some Time to Take It Easy."
     What wonderful advice for the holiday season!
     There's so much to do before Christmas - cookies to bake, gifts to buy and wrap, programs to attend, decorations to put up, Christmas dinner to make.
     The "to do" list is overwhelming. How can we possibly take it easy?
     On the other hand, what are we missing by scurrying around so quickly?
     It reminds me of a true "parable" I read in the Washington Post Magazine. The article was titled, "Pearls before Breakfast."
In January 12, 2007, a street musician opened his violin case, threw in a little seed money and began playing in a Washington D.C. Metro station.
     It was a Friday morning 7:51, the middle of rush hour.
In the next 43 minutes, 1,097 people passed by. Most of them were on the way to important government jobs. Surely the scurrying middle-management executives were highly cultured. They would pay big prices for a concert in beautiful Kennedy Center, but would they stop to listen to a street musician? Would they recognize the quality of music they were hearing?
     This performance was an experiment in priorities, conducted by The Washington Post. Video cameras and reporters checked the responses of commuters.
     Of the 1,097 people who walked by, only seven people stopped for at least a minute to listen. And 27 people threw some money into the case as they rushed by.
     In all, the musician collected $32.17. Note the 17 cents. Yes, some people tossed pennies into the case, much to the chagrin of the musician.
     For the violinist was the internationally-acclaimed Joshua Bell, playing some of the world's best music on a 300-year-old Stradivarius violin worth three and a half million dollars.
     A violinist who has soloed with the finest orchestras here and abroad. An acclaimed recording star, that one composer said "plays like a god." A violinist who can command 1,000 dollars a minute.
     There were at least two people who had time to listen that Friday morning.
     John Picarello, a supervisor for the United States Postal Service, listened for a whole nine minutes. Later, Picarello said, "It was a treat, just a brilliant, incredible way to start the day."
But he was amazed that other people just rushed by the virtuosic performance.
     Stacy Furukawa, a demographer at the Commerce Department, recognized Bell. "It was the most astonishing thing I've ever seen," she said.
     "Joshua Bell was standing there playing at rush hour and people were not stopping, and not even looking, and some were flipping quarters at him! Quarters!"
     In his summary of the research, Washington Post writer Gene Weingarten wrote, "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... then what else are we missing?"

Copyright 2007 Marie Snider

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