thoughts

I've had some thoughts swirling around in my mind and some of them are running together and in and out of one another. A few years back in Washington D.C. a writer for the Washington Post performed an experiment, they had Joshua Bell, the world famous violinist, perform a concert in the metro station. Bell appeared to be just any other street performer. The experiment was to see if people would realize they were hearing Joshua Bell, if they would stop and listen, if they would throw money. You'll have to read the article for the full details but people did not realize that they were hearing a former prodigy playing extremely difficult pieces, and he only made about $32 dollars.
We live in a day and age of technology where information is at our finger tips, where we are used to and even demand instant gratification. For all our advances and accomplishments we feel privileged and rank ourselves above past generations, but I find myself wondering: what good is it? If we cannot appreciate beauty, if we cannot even see it before us, what good does it do us? Now I will admit that had I been in the metro in D.C. for that experiment, I too would likely have hurried past and never known that I had heard a great.
It worries me though, we are all so busy, for what ends? Are we happier for our business? Have our lives perhaps become too convenient? When the sun sets do we notice the beauty or just that the sun is in our eyes?
Beauty is very important, there is no joy without beauty, there is no hope either.
I absolutely do not believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I firmly believe that the requirements of beauty are real and that they have been established for at least as long as there has been an earth and quite likely before.
As an artist I strive for beauty, I am responsible to help the earth become a more beautiful place. I'm wandering now and loosing my train of thought, but I wanted to share these thoughts. They are very important to me. Make time for beauty, work for beauty. I don't know that anyone was ever sad for something truly beautiful.