Walk on by

1 Rep Max Snatch

Ten Minute time limit. Not including warm-up.

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The following is a clip from an article detailing a social experiment the Washington Post set up in 2007. You can read the entire article and watch some video footage here:

It was 7:51 a.m. on Friday, January 12, the middle of the morning rush hour. In the next 43 minutes, as the violinist performed six classical pieces, 1,097 people passed by. Almost all of them were on the way to work, which meant, for almost all of them, a government job. L’Enfant Plaza is at the nucleus of federal Washington, and these were mostly mid-level bureaucrats with those indeterminate, oddly fungible titles: policy analyst, project manager, budget officer, specialist, facilitator, consultant..No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made.

His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities — as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?

Do you think you would have stopped to listen?

  As I pondered to myself whether I would have stopped, I realize this is about something else completely!  I am disappointed that I do not know the difference between good or bad violin playing or how to appreciate great classical music!   The beauty is in the knowledge of the thing.  We need to learn about something before it can be fully appreciated.  Imagine seeing some dude set up a 135lb barbell at a random location and perform perfect clean and jerks.  You would not only stop and watch, but you would judge his form and calculate how many reps he has done in how long.  Sure this activity would gather a crowd, but they would only stare in wonder and confusion while you enjoyed the beauty of the moment, because you understand.