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Poo Poo ...

Posted by Sommovigo (M) on April 11, 2007 at 13:44:49

In Reply to: Re: Here's a 'must read' article... one that makes me somewhat sad... posted by SLL on April 11, 2007 at 07:04:11:

While I understand your feelings and, indeed, your apparently above-average aesthetic sensibility, I also still believe that the experiment only proved that busy people pre-programmed into their daily routine of commuting can easily ignore even the great Joshua Bell busking in diguise.

Meanwhile, as others have commented, his results would likely have been immeasurably better with the very same group of people. Context WOULD have mattered. Had the same busker been plying his trade on a weekend afternoon in a sunny outdoor shopping plaza - he'd have fared much better. Same people, different context.

So it's not that anyone is "saving" the time to appreciate beauty ... it's that our minds tend to operate in modes of attention depending upon the context of our activity. It's simply that, I believe, when we give ourselves the opportunity to dismantle our daily armor, we are better able to perceive beauty more deeply.

It is not pathetic ... and it is. Pathetic (as meaning "pitifully inferior") doesn't seem to apply here, but rather - as derived from Pathos - something that moves us emotionally and incites a sympathetic or empathetic resonance in our souls, the term then seems best employed.

You did not miss an opportunity - no need to be sad. What you have gained is an opportunity - to discover the hidden beauty that we often ignore in our hastily armored rituals of daily "life." So, while I suspect the experiment itself proved nothing more than something we already knew - the mind of a busy person is usually armored to resist or ignore anything that doesn't have to do with the business of their busyness - it also teaches us that if we don't force ourselves out of certain programmed attention modes, we may be missing some truly wonderful experiences (as you so aptly noted).

Some say that the kingdom of God is here, one needs but only to notice.

Could be something to that ...

%22In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.%22 - Yogi Berra

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