So I cried.
Not just a little either. I had to get up from my desk and go to the bathroom and sit there for a few minutes until I stopped. Not because, hey, this guy is famous and nobody recognized him, but because so few people stopped to listen to somebody living passionately in the moment.
And every few minutes, I think about how music so deeply touches the base of the human soul, expressing the kind of beauty, pain and glory we can't vocalize, and how incredibly easy it is to supress that emotion and dismiss it as noise and interference, and I feel myself tearing up again. I cried because I didn't realize how easy it is for us to shut ourselves off to the opportunities and beauty that surround us.
I guess I cried at this for the same reason I cried when I watched the documentary Let's Rock Again, which followed Joe Strummer and his band, the Mescaleros as they toured North America in 2001. Joe Strummer. Standing outside dingy, dirty theatres and concert halls, handing out leaflets and trying to get people to attend his show. Joe. Fucking. Strummer. The man had a hand in bringing about a musical revolution and he was reduced to begging people to come see his show and they're responding with a vague "who?"
The moments we think are important, the getting to work, going to school, running the errand moments, they are nowhere near as meaningful, as powerful, as vital to our survival as the moments we steal for ourselves.
I liked the guy who noticed Bell playing and stopped to watch. He knew this was a good player weilding an amazing instrument and playing beautiful music, even if he didn't know who it was. Only one person recognized him for real, which is fine with me. I don't care that nobody knew who HE was, but that nobody recognized fine music being performed by a fine musician on a fine instrument, that is sad.
Wordsworth said "The world is too much with us" and I have never found it more true than lately. Sometimes, to unplug, I ignore the clocks and open the blinds and turn off the electronic devices and bake something.
And I never thought it would be so damn difficult to take even five minutes to myself to read or drink a cup of tea AWAY from everything. I can't even find the time to update this blog ... except at work. Shhhh... don't tell!
When did paying attention to the world around us become such a nuisance?
I guess I'd like to know.
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