The first commentary for our first issue of In Factis Pax was going to be something that I had been working on for quite a while now dealing with issues of positive peace, responsible governance, and responsible citizenship are all inexorably linked together in a cosmopolitan system that works to celebrate the value of human life no matter the circumstances. I still plan to write that piece…but my ideas changed when I went online this past Monday and read the cover story of the Washington Post.

Joshua Bell

The story is entitled “Pearls Before Breakfast” and it changed my focus…I’d like to say that it has changed my life, but I am neither that bold, nor that foolish. What is actually the case is that I am not that brave…and it is truly eating me up inside.
You see the Washington Post conducted an experiment for this article in putting virtuoso American classical musician Joshua Bell into a subway station in Washington DC. For nearly an hour, Bell played some of the most beautiful music ever written, and as you might guess almost no one stopped to listen. Nearly 1100 people walked by Bell as he played, less than a dozen stopped for more than a moment, and only one actually recognized the man who was just honored with the Avery Fischer Prize as the bet classical musician in America.
My point here is not to speak of the beauty of classical music, or shift the discussion to higher culture, but simply to remind myself that there is beauty in the world. There are things that mean something on a higher level than simply punching the clock, catching the bus home, or even composing another essay about social inequities.

Bell performing (left side of the frame)

The author of the article, Gene Weingarten, quotes the poet Billy Collins “… all babies are born with knowledge of poetry, because the lub-dub of the mother’s heart is in iambic meter.” Then, Collins said, “life slowly starts to choke the poetry out of us. It may be true with music, too.”
In fact it seems that life, as we live in today, slowly removes all of the beauty from our short existence and replaces it instead with the mundane drone of our daily commute, the mindless warble of the sales meeting, or the endless banter of the media talking heads. We allow it because it is what we know, because it is what society allows, or because it pays the bills. Our individual reasons are distinct and focused, but they all provide a reason to explain why nearly 1100 people walked right by the preeminent classical musician in the world today that day in January.
I was stunned, nearly to the point of tears, upon reading the essay. So at about 11 AM on Monday morning, my essay shifted away from topics of peace and violence to proclaim a simple apology to Joshua Bell. This is that apology…in so many words.
I was not in Washington DC that day in January, but if I was I might have been one of those that was too busy, and would have continued walking by to a waiting bus or subway train. I would not have made time to appreciate his generous contribution to the morning, and most disturbingly to my own psyche, I would most likely have whisked my own children by him and not let them listen to the beauty in the L’Enfant station that day.

Wind mills on Interstate 5

My own life is so busy that I rarely take the time to look around and see the wonder that exists around me…but I remember the one time that I did. It was on a bridge of all places, on the Interstate 5 expressway in Los Angeles California, at sunset, in the summertime; the sun had just dipped below the horizon and it set the lights of the city ahead ablaze with color…but I did not take the time to fully appreciate that sunset, as the rush of traffic was soon upon me, and I was drug back into life as I know it.
I am a doctoral student, a computer manager, a soccer coach, a journal staff member, and a Dad among other things. However if I fail to stop to appreciate beauty, it may disappear from my sight and it then becomes something I cannot pass along or share with others.
I study, debate, and write about ideas and concepts of bringing the world into a more equitable place; making the world a more peaceful place where we can all celebrate our common humanity- but on Monday I found myself asking whether or not I had missed a step? I found myself asking if I had indeed been to busy to really look at the real issues behind my query- can there be peace if we miss the connection that we share with the beauty of the world around us?
If we as human beings are too caught up with out every day experiences to notice the joy and wonder around us everyday…can we ever hope to truly make the connection between peace and education? What can we hope to comprehend, if we do not make the time to listen to the music that flows around us? Perhaps that is the question that we should first consider, and then the rest of the task may not seem as daunting.

Listen to Joshua Bell’s complete performance at WashingtonPost.com