Journal of Sacred Work

If we can’t take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen
to one of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever
written; if the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf
and blind to something like that — then what else are we missing? – Gene Weingarten, Washington Post

   The violinist stood there in Washington’s Metro subway station like any other street musician. As he played Bach, Schubert and Massenet, commuters ignored him as they might most of the wandering minstrels who haunt the ground below ground. After all, they didn’t come to listen to music. They are on their way to other things, carried along by "the surge of modern life"…

   What does it take to capture our full presence? It turns out that context is critical. The subway violinist in this true story is none other than the world renowned Joshua Bell, considered by critics to be perhaps the finest violinist on earth. Bell agreed to be part of an experiment arranged by The Washington Post and reported on, fascinatingly, by Mr. Weingarten in a must-read April 8 story which is accessible at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

   Perhaps you have already sensed the essence of the experiment. Take a world class musician out of the context of the auditorium, withdraw his $100-a-seat audience, drop him into a subway setting with his $3.5 million dollar Stradivarius, and see if anyone pays any attention.
   The answer, surprising to some, is that almost no one even hesitated, much less stopped to listen. Of the the 1071 people who passed Mr. Bell in 43 minutes, only one person recognized him, even though Bell had just performed in a sold-out concert at a nearby hall. And only one other individual, John Picarello, stopped to listen long enough to realize he he was in the presence of something quite remarkable – "a superb violinist," he immediately noticed, "I’d never heard anyone of that caliber." Picarello caught nine minutes of the performance. "It was a treat, just a brilliant, incredible way to start the day."
   Only one man had the presence to appreciate stunning beauty in the middle of subway noise without knowing the fame of the artist.
  This isn’t the story, The Emperor’s New Clothes, because Bell is gifted with astonishing talent. If anything, it is the reverse. For there was true gold in air of the Metro station and most were blind to it.
   What is our ability to perceive beauty when it’s right in front of us? We have to be paying attention.

   Amid the photographs and painting reproductions hanging on my office wall, I have tacked up an ordinary Subway wrapper. I put it there to help me understand the notion of art. Can a lowly object be elevated in such a way? We know that it can from the works of numerous modern artists such as the remarkable Andy Warhol.
   I look at the Subway wrapper more often than I do the many other objects on my wall. Often, I wonder if people entering my office will notice the oddity of a plastic wrapper tacked to the wall. Out of politeness, or , more likely, because they are focused on a different agenda, almost no one mentions the wrapper, even though it looks as out of place as you can imagine. 

   The ordinary can become the extraordinary through the quality of our presence. The extraordinary can be transformed into the transcendent if we educate our hearts to notice.
   What Warhol and others did was show us that trash, or the ordinary, can be beautiful. In a different way, what Joshua Bell does is show us what music sounds like when it’s created from the highest peaks of excellence. What reporter Weingarten suggests is that context focuses our attention.
   Caregiving, like any other form of work, can involve ordinary transactions, or it can be elevated to the level of the highest art. The role of leaders is to put caregivers in context.
   Leaders can raise energy by putting a sort of frame around the calling of caregiving. In so doing, they celebrate the nobility, elegance and beauty of what to others may seem ordinary.
   Why is the film Sacred Work, produced by the Baptist Healing Trust, so successful? This film is powerful because it frames the work of caregivers truthfully and effectively. That is why so many hospitals now use it to orient new employees and to inspire veterans.
   Our lives are the sum of where we focus our attention in the moments we are granted. Weingarten quotes W. H. Davies:

             What is this life if, full of care,
             We have no time to stand and stare.

Spiritual Practice:   As a spiritual practice:

1) Consider people and things around you and how they would seem if they were highlighted in film or their best gifts were truly noticed.
2) If you haven’t already done so, go back and read Weingarten’s full story at the link, above. His story has already changed my life and I hope it will engage yours as well.

-Erie Chapman