jabmyeyes.com » passion http://www.jabmyeyes.com sometimes the news makes me want to jab my eyes out Sun, 22 Aug 2010 12:42:18 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 something majestic http://www.jabmyeyes.com/2009/11/21/something-majestic/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://www.jabmyeyes.com/2009/11/21/something-majestic/#comments Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:42:42 +0000 jo http://www.jabmyeyes.com/?p=266

I found this to be amazing.  We are all so guilty of being captured by marketing and packaging.  If you put a young man playing a 3.5 million dollar Stradivarius violin in the middle of a subway line rather than a concert hall, no one stops to listen.  The marketing isn’t right?  I think the timing wasn’t right.  People trying to get to work on time cannot take the time to stop and listen even if they wanted to.

We don’t leave for work a little early because there might be a concert violinist playing at the subway station. I was late for class once though because the greatest classic guitar player in the world (in my opinion) was playing in the cafeteria at Broward Community College. (I called it beer can college, I loved it there)  He played all the parts of Bohemian Rhapsody and gave it a Spanish flair.  He was a foreign student from South America (Brazil I think) practicing for his final exam in his music class.  I hope he is living a happy life.


Perception

MusicianSomething to think about….

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:

The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:

The musician played continuously.  Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.  The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.

What do you suppose was learned from this experiment?

maybe that is why we drive slower as we age.  We learn from missing out to take in the journey more so then the destination.  Leave a little earlier on your way to work or school, because something majestic is always happening somewhere.

simple bird

]]> http://js-kit.com/rss/www.jabmyeyes.com/p=266 4 Don’t be trapped http://www.jabmyeyes.com/2009/10/15/dont-be-trapped/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://www.jabmyeyes.com/2009/10/15/dont-be-trapped/#comments Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:17:01 +0000 jo http://www.jabmyeyes.com/?p=204 Harmonic Convergence

Harmonic Convergence

http://www.zenmoments.org/on-the-toss-of-a-coin/

I read Steve Jobs commencement speech to Stanford University that was delivered on June 12, 2005.  Wow!  If you haven’t read it, please do so.  There is no bias to his words, just sincerity and emotional intelligence.  Here is the link and a few of my favorite parts.

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.htm

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it.  Death is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by Dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

We all know this, but, do we really do this?  I grew up with advice such as “stick to your own guns”,  “paddle your own canoe” and “find your passion”.  Those words  just didn’t put a fire under me.   “A job worth doing is worth doing well” and I do believe that; but,  my job is not my life. My job is how I pay for my life.

I chose a noble profession, I am an RN.  When my children were born I didn’t want to be a bartender anymore so I worked in a doctors office.  The doctor convinced me I should be a nurse so I went to nursing school and now I work in an Intensive Care Unit.  There was no destiny or passion or calling or anything like that.  I was like dust rolling around and collecting into what I am now.  I’m not sure any dots were connected and yet, I am surely enjoying this life.

Hospitals can be humbling.  I lost a 34 year old patient last week to cervical cancer.  No pain, no nausea, just quietly and quickly slipped away.  Someone borrowed $60 from the patient so the patient’s sister could get out of jail to be with her before she died.  Her sister made it.  Did they choose this life?  Was it a carefree life that somehow became tragic and left behind an orphan son?

Steve Jobs said, that he dropped out of school in order to take the courses that he wanted rather than the ones he was required to take.   I’m not as smart as Steve Jobs.  Without a degree in something I would flounder.  I wasn’t able to feed my children because of  anything I made in my garage. So I persevered and sat with tutors in the library and made it through nursing school.

I watched a great movie called Sherman’s Way.  It seems to fit in here somehow.  I have neighbors very similar to Palmer and DJ.  They live a carefree life and they share their fish with us sometimes.  Living a carefree life can be great as long as it isn’t irresponsible.  Then again living a structured life can be great too as long as there is  gentleness and spontaneity thrown in.   Kathy, whom I referred to in What is inside,  is like Sherman with her notes and her organized self. I enjoyed finding what was inside.

I guess it is just about living a life you enjoy and surrounding yourself with people you love.  If you’re anything like me and there are no dots to connect and no passions to persue than just live a life worth living.

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