The little things we tend to miss

A world-class, extremely famous musician, playing on a priceless violin stops at a corner of a street in Washington. From a small case, he removes his instrument and places the case open at his feet. He throws in a few dollars as seed money and begins to play.

The musician is Joshua Bell but nobody recognised him

He is simply described as "a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap"

One wonders... People who rushed past, perhaps flipping spare change, what would they have done if they had realized that they were getting a free front seat at a performance that they would never get another chance at again?

What do we simply throw out as useless, meaningless, even stupid... just because we don't have a reason or the time to really look at it's value?

Someone argued that it was the musician's fault if his value wasn't recognised... apparently he didn't engage with the crowd. He needs a stage and the street needs to be made into a stage by the musician, it doesn't become a stage on its own.

So, does that mean that if you are great but nobody notices than you really are not that great?
And does it mean that if we don't recognise the value of what surrounds us it's not our fault but the thing/person's fault because it wasn't able to reach us, to keep us interested, to make us want to know more?


The world is so full of big, really meaningful things that it's the "little" things we really do tend to miss.

And yet this brings me to consider what defines something as "little".
Is it the being common? Or unknown? Or quiet? Or written in a different way? Or whispered? Or new?

And if it's little to me would it seem little to you as well?

Truth be told some people did put money in the violin case, some people, even without recognising the person recognised the value of the music, some people noticed...

And though this may make you think that in this fast paced world slowing down a bit may make you appreciate what is on your path, at the same time let's not forget that while we're enjoying the music, somewhere else, at another corner of the street there is another musician who is packing up and whose amazing music we'll never hear just because we were a tiny bit too slow...