This week, as any other week, I got many different e-mails: from my instructor, work, from Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE), my friends around the world,Facebook and of course some spam. There are also times when I get awe-inspiring e-mails.
The e-mails I get from my friends and people I know I open and read thoroughly. Even if it is one of those cheesy forwarded e-mails about life, friendship, love, beauty, etc.
So, this week I got one of those forwarded e-mails and thought it will be something cliché again. The subject of the e-mail really intrigued me; “PERCEPTION,” it screamed and I started to read it since I had some extra time before my class. At first I thought it was a story of “The Soloist” starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. Nonetheless, the story in the e-mail I was reading happened in Washington, D.C. in 2007. The e-mail was about a young man playing violin at a Metro Station one cold January morning. According to the story, he played six Bach pieces in the period of 45 minutes and during that time around 2,000 people went through the station.
As I kept reading the e-mail I find out the story was real, and it was a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities organized by the Washington Post. The young man playing the violin was worldwide famous musician Joshua Bell. Yet no one on the station knew that.
The e-mail also reveals how some people in the station stopped and listened to him play. However, as soon as they would stop to listen they would check the time and everyone would go on hastily into their lives. Some would throw some cash in and wouldn’t even take time to stop and listen.
In the end of the e-mail it said:
“This experiment raised several questions: 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 as we rush through life?”
As I read these questions I reflected back to the times I saw, heard or even felt something beautiful. There were times I stopped and wholeheartedly appreciated the beauty around me, but there were also times I simply passed by.
I also started to think about how hard it is for our society today, because most live to work, instead of working to live. How difficult it is for students to get an education, since it’s so expensive students have to work a few jobs and on top many have families to raise.
Today we are all so busy doing this and that we forget to look around us, to seek something beautiful and appreciate it. Life is short; we need to enjoy it and there isn’t much one has to do – only look, smell, feel and acknowledge. As the proverb says, “Take time to smell the roses.” And everyone needs at least one minute, one minute to smell a flower, look up to the beautiful blue sky and feel the warmth of the sunshine, to go out at night and see how radiant a full moon is, to tell something funny and make someone laugh, to sent a text saying something sweet and make someone’s day.
There are so many things that are beautiful, and everyone has their own definition of it. The point I’m trying to make is, take time to appreciate it. Look around, because there is always something beautiful.
So next time when you are up early and going to work, look around you, smell the fresh air, think about what day might bring, and think positively, think beautiful. Next time you are walking down the street and people are sitting outside of Chipotle, the Union or just laying on the grass, notice a smile on their face and think beautiful. Next time when you hear someone playing a guitar or a violin or singing a song, give them, give yourself a minute of your time and listen, listen actively and think beautiful.
As Confucius said: “Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it,” remember that, but be the one who sees it and not only sees it, but also appreciates it. Don’t rush through your life and don’t be someone who misses all the beauty! Embrace the beauty of the world! See beauty, appreciate beauty, be beauty!
– Ganjina Azimova is a junior English major at U. Nebraska.