Joshua Bell playing violin incognito in subway

On on a cold January morning, a man with a violin played six Bach pieces in the DC Metro Station for about 45 minutes. During that time, approximately 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, but then hurried off to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:

The violinist received his first dollar: without stopping a woman threw the money in the hat.

6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to the violinist, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother hurried him along as his eyes (and ears) remained fixated on the violinist.  This scene was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:

The musician played continuously.  Only 6 people stopped to listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.  The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over.  No one noticed, no one applauded.  No one even gave a slight nod or smile of recognition or appreciation.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.

The questions raised:

In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

If so, do we stop to appreciate it?

Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.

How many other things are we missing?

The summary above is a synopsis of a 2007 experiment that led to a Pulitzer Prize winning article written by Gene Weingarten.  The entire article with audio and video can be found HERE.

The above experiment shows how easy it is to miss exquisite beauty while immersed in our busy routines.  Perhaps that’s why we forget how we’re all connected to each other, the earth, the stars, and all that is — yet we often feel so isolated and alone.  The purpose of this blog and Sweet Springs Institute includes raising awareness of our interconnectedness  and exploring ways to cooperate with each other in an efficient and intelligent manner that honors us as individuals and as a collective community.  Our connection with the earth and each other is perhaps even more beautiful than the wonderful music that Joshua Bell played in the DC Metro subway.  Let’s stop, examine and savor this before it’s too late as it is for the DC Metro commuters who obliviously walked by the violinist above.

May the New Year and the New Decade bring light, joy and focus to us all! I would like to express my gratitude to all of us who have taken steps to bring Sweet Springs Institute to where it is now!

We have all helped SSI move forward in significant yet very different ways.

As I paused to review our path over the past year, 2009, I became aware that we actually are a living example of conscious integrity: we are a structure in which each of the parts is contributing in his own unique way to the integrity of the whole bearing witness to our premise that the whole can accomplish and experience way more that any individual one of its parts could do on its own.

As mentioned in Part I of this series, we recently had a mini-retreat at Sweet Springs Institute.  Our theme was acting with conscious integrity with respect to each other and our community.  One participant further described this theme as giving the best of ourselves to each other.  I added acting (or refraining from acting) with the intent to bring out the best in each other.  I was also curious about how acting with conscious integrity toward others would affect us individually.  That is, would shifting some of our attention to the well being of others result in a decrease or increase in our own well being?

Helping ourselves through helping others

I hoped that if I interacted with others with the intent to bring out the best in them that each person I interacted with would receive some benefit, or, at the very least, I wouldn’t do them any harm.  I was somewhat surprised, however, to find that while acting with conscious integrity toward others, I benefitted as much or more than those I was trying to support.

Perhaps this is because I am often so consumed by my own individual needs and concerns that I have little attention and energy left to fully see others and their points of view.  When my needs seem to be unmet, I tend to shift even more attention and energy to meeting them.  I have logically presumed that if I pay more attention to my own needs and concerns, I’ll eventually be healthy and well enough to really give my best to others.  However, this paradigm hasn’t worked very well for me.

A new paradigm

Because my needs and concerns have recently seemed to grow rather than diminish despite my increased attention to such needs and concerns, I agreed to the weekend’s theme to bring more consideration to the wellbeing of others.  I figured that I could let go of some of my self-concern for a couple of days to experiment with a different approach to interacting with others.  I knew that I would then be able to go back to my routine way of living on Sunday when I returned from Sweet Springs Institute.

However, I now find myself several weeks later striving to maintain such intent and awareness because I found during the weekend event (and since then) that acting with conscious integrity toward others brings about more meaningful, enjoyable and connected interactions.  I’m not sure if this is because of the support I offered to others or because the general increase in well being I experience when acting with the intent to bring out the best in others.  What I am sure of is that, for me, acting with conscious integrity toward others definitely benefits me tremendously and appears, either directly or indirectly to benefit others.

This is a vast subject that everyone will likely experience a bit differently.  I invite the readers and other authors of this blog to comment and/or post about their own experiences and insights regarding acting with the intent to bring out the best in others and give 110% of ourselves when interacting with others.  Perhaps more importantly, I invite you all to experiment and experience for yourself the joy of deeply connecting with others through conscious integrity.  Below are a number of other areas of exploration and topics for future discussion related to acting with conscious integrity toward others:

• Acting with conscious integrity toward others who don’t act the same toward us.
• What does acting with conscious integrity toward others mean to those who already give too much of themselves and often neglect their own needs?
• Does acting with conscious integrity toward others expand our awareness or just shift some of it away from ourselves to others?

Theme

As a group, we set our theme for the weekend: To explore, in a focussed manner, giving the best of ourselves to others. This could involve giving the best of what we have (food portions), what we do (service, attention), what we say, what we think and what we feel (mood). Each one of us will follow this thread as he sees fit, in accordance with where we are in our individual exploration of the Self.

Example: Some people may always take the best piece of food for themselves: they might decide to explore cutting the best piece as though it were for themselves and giving it to the other. Others may always give the best piece to others: they might decide to explore their mood as they do this and see if it comes from a position of openness or from a behavioral pattern. If so, they might decide to explore how it is to take the best piece and offer it to themselves or how it is to give it to others in a different mood, a mood of affection.

General Feedback

Participants felt a difference in their body position (more fluid, not cramped or tense) during group interactions and in their mood (more open, and lighter). Within this framework, they felt more secure and could be more spontaneous. Below you will find some of their specific findings during this exploration.