"What do We Choose to See?"

A man stood in the L'Enfant Plaza Metro Station in Washington, D.C. and started to play the violin. It was a cold January 12th morning in 2007.
Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip. A woman threw the money into his open violin case without stopping and continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother pulled him along as he tried to stop to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child walked away turning his head back to see the man continuing to play.
This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on. In the 45 minutes the musician played, only seven people stopped to listen.
When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed he had stopped. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with his Stradivarius violin handcrafted in 1713 that is worth 3.5 million dollars.
Three days earlier, Bell had played to a full house at Boston's Symphony Hall, where seats averaged $100.00. But on this day he collected just $32.17 for his efforts which was contributed by 27 of the 1,097 passing travelers.
Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment during a busy hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?
One of the conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing? What could we be missing?
We have food on the table. We have a car. We can put gas in it. We can drive to a park and sit seeing the children play. It might be cold, but we have a coat to wear and we can have a smile of thankfulness on our face. Or we might be holding an invoice and be figuring out how to pay it, but our lights are on and the house next door has not be destroyed by a rocket fired from twenty miles away or by a shell fired from a tank down the street.
We have so much beautiful FREEDOM that we so often take for granted. There IS beauty all around us.
What do we choose to see?