The Flop L'Enfant Plaza.....

When I read “Pearls Before Breakfast” by Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post dated 8April, 2007, I was captivated by the true life story but most important of all, I learnt that having life lessons from God is far more important than anything else in this world. It started out as a challenge to see if anyone would recognize this 39 year old violin extraordinaire and violin prodigy, Joshua Bell in the midst of the busy DC Metro subway station L’Enfant Plaza, Washington D.C. Again, I must confess that I don't know much about classical music. I must confess that I have heard of Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carrerras and Il Divo. I should say I do enjoy too pieces from Johann Strauss, Ludwig von Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach and some other names when I was younger. I hope I don't sound like a geek,man. OhYes, my favourite of all time, "Flight of the Bumble Bee" - Maxim.
On Friday, 12th January, 2007, armed with his 300 year old Antonio Stradivari crafted violin called the Gibson ex Huberman made in 1713 worth US$3.5million , donning a long sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap, this youngish white man in jeans started with “Chaconne” from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Partita No.2 in D Minor. He played Franz Hubert’s “ Ave Maria”, Manuel Ponce’s sentimental “Estrellita”, a Jules Massenet piece and then a Bach gavotte and it all lasted for 43 minutes. Here was a man whose talents can command US$1,000 per minute Joshua Bell playing the violin in the best way he knew how and what was his bounty ~ US $32.17 with some in pennies! Of the 1,097 people who passed him by that day, twenty seven gave money and only one person recognized him. It was Stacy Furukawa, a demographer at the Commerce Department. She said “It was the most astonishing thing I’ve ever seen in Washington. 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! I wouldn’t do that to anybody. I was thinking, Omigosh, what kind of a city do I live in that this could happen?”
What did this maestro has to say? “ It was a strange feeling that people were actually ignoring me. At a music hall, I’ll get upset is someone coughs or if someone’s cellphone goes off. But here, my expectations quickly diminished. I started to appreciate any acknowledgement, even a slight glance up. I was oddly grateful when someone threw in a dollar instead of change.” The awkward times to Joshua Bell is what happens right after each piece ends: nothing. The music stops. The same people who hadn’t noticed him playing don’t notice that he has finished. No applause. No acknowledgement.
For Joshua Bell, he may have been the greatest musician on earth of all times but that day, he was humbled by the people at the L’Enfant Plaza subway station.
So many times, our Father in heaven is just like that. We live our lives in such hurried–hurried manner that we seemed to forget that the greatest musician and healer in our lives seemed to be playing at the side unnoticed just like Joshua Bell. We also need to humble ourselves, lean back against the wall, listen to soothing music of life as belted out by Him and recognize Him for who He is in our lives. Be blessed !