The child stood rapt with attention, the most motionless a toddler has ever been in my experience- perhaps in the history of toddlers. He stood with his feet planted on the pavement, leaning forward intently, brows knitted in focus and fascination as he looked slightly upward. For the entire duration of the famous song "Time to Say Goodbye," he stood like this, focused in apparent wonder as a violinist played.
The violinist knelt down, the young boy standing barely a foot away. Earlier the musician had been flitting about with surprising nimbleness, a showman playing to various people in the circle surrounding him; but now he played almost exclusively for the little boy who had deliberately walked right up to him where he played in Downtown Disney, adjacent to Disneyland Resort in Anaheim.
The strains of the song made famous by Andrea Bocelli flowed from the violin. The man didn't look like a classical musician- dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt and sporting sunglasses- but he played brilliantly. A young woman ran to get her mother, and they promptly pulled out their cameras to snap images as the musician played before the child, apparently a member of their family.
Smiles and chuckles began to circulate throughout the small gathered audience as we all watched the little boy and the violinist. At first we giggled and said "aw, how cute..." but as the child remained still in the center of the circle, silently watching nothing but the violinist, people became more earnest- focused and entranced just like he was.
The violinist stood up for the last flourishes of the song- wonderfully delicate high notes as the music came to an end. And we burst into applause.
The child stood in the middle, and for the first time he began to look about slowly with that wide-eyed look peculiar to toddlers. And eventually, we all saw his hands coming together too, applauding.
There were more than a few teary-eyed glances exchanged between strangers as we dispersed. The family got autographs and some moments with the musician, and the rest of us got a reminder about the meaning of life, of joy, of music.
Note: I would love to have included a photo, but I decided not to intrude on the family's privilege and privacy, and I let them take all the photos of this lovely moment. I hope you can imagine it for yourselves :-)
