The $3.5 Million Dollar Violin

Psalm 39:5 “You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath.” 

What would happen if you put one of the worlds most talented violinists in a subway station during the morning rush hour and had him play classical music on his $3.5 million dollar violin? The New York Post did just that as an experiment to see people’s reactions. The musician’s name is Joshua Bell and that day he played some of the most beautiful and complicated classical music ever written, two pieces, one by Bach and one by Brahm. Bell plays for sold out audiences around the world, people pay hundreds of dollars to hear him play. 

On that January morning over 1000 people passed by while Bell played for 45 minutes. Seven people stopped for about a minute to listen, 27 people gave money, for a total of $32 and change. Most people passing by do not even turn to look at him. Bell said, “At a music hall, I'll get upset if someone coughs or if someone's cellphone goes off. But here, my expectations quickly diminished. I started to appreciate any acknowledgment, even a slight glance up. I was oddly grateful when someone threw in a dollar instead of change." To be noted bell makes over $1000 a minute when he plays for most audiences. One man stops and stays for three minutes, he said the music made him feel at peace and for the first time in his life he gave a street musician money. 

Bell watches the video a few weeks later and said he understands why he is not drawing a crowd but he is surprised at the number of people who pay no attention at all, “It is as if I’m invisible. Because you know what? I’m makin’ a lot of noise!” 

I recently spent an afternoon with a woman named Dorothy, she is 88 years old and is suffering from Dementia. I asked her if she thought she had lived a good life. Dorothy said, “A good life, well yes I had a good life.” She then stopped and after a few moments she said, “But it went so fast!” 

I have a friend who is retired and living on a lake, he loves to garden and work with his hands. For years he has been telling me how he just watches as all these young people are always so busy, he said, “They are always running, here and there, they don’t take time to enjoy the things around them.  They always have someplace else to be.”

Psalm 39:6 goes on to say, “We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth, not knowing who will spend it.” If Dorothy had been in the subway station that day, I am sure she would have stopped and listened to the man and his $3.5 million violin.