THE FIDDLER IN THE SUBWAY STATION

It was a chilly winter morning. Standing quietly in one corner of the subway station, a violinist was playing the violin. Displaying amazing talent, the violinist gave a truly incredible performance that lasted 45 minutes. During those 45 minutes, about 1,097 commuters passed through that station and none of them really paid attention to the violinist. In the third minute of the violinist’s performance, a middle-aged man noticed the violinist and paused for a few seconds and then moved away. After that, the violinist received his first tip of the day: from a lady threw a dollar into the violinist’s till, and then quickly continued walking. The longest anyone paid attention to the violinist was a three year old boy. This boy observed the violinist, wide-eyed, for almost three minutes until the boy’s mother took him away. A few other children also tried to stay and watch the violinist, but their parents hurriedly made them keep walking. None of the busy commuters passing through the station knew that they had just watched one of the world’s most talented and the most amazing violinists. His name was Joshua Bell, and he was a child prodigy who first performed at New York City’s Carnegie Hall at the age of 17. The violin Joshua Bell played in the subway station was a 400 year old violin worth 3.5 million dollars. The performance was part of an experiment organized by Gene Weingarten. He wanted to measure the amount of time people spend to pay attention to beautiful things happening around them. Later, Gene Weingarten presented the findings of his experiments in his book, The Fiddler in the Subway . He won the Pulitzer Prize for his work. When we are pursuing our goals, there are many little pleasures that may seem meaningless at the time. However, when we reach our goals, it is too late for us to understanding all the moments we have lost. If we keep the eyes of our minds open, there are many amazing things in our beautiful world that can give us reasons to smile. Certainly, music is one of them! (Adapted from Amazing True Life Stories website)