Joshua Bell in the Metro

Will all buskers please stand up and take a bow

clipped from www.post-gazette.com Earlier this year, The Washington Post asked Joshua Bell to stand at a subway stop, play his instrument and see if anyone noticed. This makes for a pretty good story, and a morality tale to boot. People in Washington are too busy, too self-absorbed, to recognize beauty at their doorstep or, in this case, at their subway stop. But I wonder how many of us would have known the difference between Mr. Bell and your typical subway busker. Do I really know enough about art music to recognize genius out of context, on the street? Do you? So I am not sure what the Post proved with its gag And yet the broader point of the Post exercise is worth acknowledging: We are not prepared to encounter beauty in our everyday lives. But here is another way of approaching the question of how we look at the world and at life. Mr. Bell is willing to bring art music to the people and to bridge the gap between the formal concert hall and the scruffy street.