Thursday, June 24, 2010

Unexpected beauty

One of my sisters sent me a copy of and link to a story about . . . well . . . beauty in unexpected places.

Check out the story my sister sent--the quick version.

An even quicker "tease":

It's about Joshua Bell, one of the greatest violinists in the world, who played some of the most beautiful violin music ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million . . . during morning rush hour in a Washington, DC, Metro station.

Three days before, he had played to a packed house in Boston where only middling seats cost $100 apiece.

The question he and a Washington Post reporter wanted to answer: How would people respond?

For the complete story, complete with video, see the original Washington Post article: Pearls Before Breakfast. And, then, a follow-up, "story behind the story" article . . . complete with readers' discussion, including answers to a question the author of the original article asked:
This story got the largest and most global response of anything I have ever written, for any publication. I am still wading through more than a thousand emails. . . .

[B]ut there's one [question] I'd like to pose: . . . [M]ore than 100 readers so far have told me that this story made them cry. It was not a reaction I anticipated, at least not so universally, and it has somewhat taken me aback. Can those of you who had this reaction try to explain it?
What do you think?

Oh.

And an alternating super-sped-up and regular-speed video of the entire, 45-minute experiment (2:36):

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