The world – as we don’t know it

At the start of my Abhyas varg I was given the task of “Paying it forward” with £30 in Birmingham city centre. The whole context of this task made me look at the world in a different way. Instead of thinking “what do I want to do next?” my thought process changed to “Who can I help next?”

This made me realize that my impact in the world is almost entirely subjective to the way I view it. How do you see homeless people? What image does the word conjure in your head? Have you ever stopped to talk to a homeless person? I think part of the reason we often walk past and fail to appreciate the beauty of our environment is that we are just too busy, self absorbed and even at times too self conscious.

Talking to several big issue sellers made me realize just how clever and educated they are. One had dropped out of university, with the prospect of a promising career. It made me think about how desensitized we have become. We walk past homeless people, big issue sellers and buskers almost everyday. But do we stop to appreciate the music? Or realise that they have their own story to tell? To us they are invisible, part of the woodwork they become almost sub-human in our minds.

A social experiment which illustrates this perfectly was carried out by the Washington Post. Joshua Bell (one of the world’s great violinists) played for 45 mins in a subway as a busker and collected only $32.17. The previous evening he had played to a sell out concert with ticket prices reaching over $200. In the subway no-one stopped to listen.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made . . .

How many other things are we missing as we rush through life?

Next time you walk past something beautiful, or something you never noticed before STOP and appreciate it. Not because I asked you, to but because it will give you an insight into the world that we live in, something that we overlook all too often.