Would you recognize Beauty if you saw it?

You always hear that Love is Blind.

There are always the stories of how ugly beautiful people are, and how people who do not appear to be convetionally attractive have beauty beyond words.

My thought today is, that in today's world of beauty and what we perceive to be beautiful, do we recognize what real beauty is, and where it is found. They always say that they eyes deceive. I wonder how many of us would not be with the person we were attracted to if we were blind.

I think that the biggest surprise is when you find someone that shouldn't be where they are. Whether it be a victim of circumstance, I always get amazed in my business by finding that proverbial diamond in the rough. The person that you see has SO much potential and yet nobody else can see it, and then you help get that person a job and see their career take off. Its the greatest reward in my business.
But I wonder if most people take the time to look more than skin deep these days, especially in Toronto; a city with a very busy pace and full of high maintenance shallow money hungry people.

I heard a story today about a world famous violinist named Joshua Bell. I have to admit, I have never heard of him, and I certainly wouldn't have recognized him if I saw him. BUT, I do know that I would recognize the brilliance of his playing and appreciated the beauty of it.

While walking through the subways of Toronto, you always come across buskers playing for money. Some of the people playing are really good. I thought they all just came and played, but I found out that they have to audition to the City of Toronto to be able to play.
Anyway, I remember once, I was busy and late getting to where I needed to go. But I heard a violinist play Corelli's "Adagio" (the string arrangement made popular from the movie Master and Commander) and I stopped and listened and it brightened my day. I threw in a loonie (dollar) in his violin case and thanked him, but I dont think he knew how much it made my day to hear that. I sang that song in my head all day and that was almost 20 years ago and I still remember it.

So here is my point...

Joshua Bell, a world famous violinist had just played to a sell out audience just days before in Boston at over 100 dollars per ticket. He plays a 3.5 Million dollar violin that is 300 years old and as an experiment, he played as a busker in a busy Washington DC subway. He played for 45 mins and this is what wikipedia has written about this experiment...

" In a curious experiment initiated by Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten, Bell donned a baseball cap and played as an incognito street busker at the Metro subway station L'Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C. on January 12, 2007. The experiment was videotaped on hidden camera; among 1,097 people who passed by, only seven stopped to listen to him, and only one recognized him. For his nearly 45-minute performance, Bell collected $32.17 from 27 passersby (excluding $20 from the passerby who recognized him) Weingarten won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing for his article on the experiment."

So chances are, you may be around greatness in your everyday life. The point is to take the time to recognize it in every shape and form. So that when you see what you may think is great, it prob'ley is...