It was one of those days that you would like every other day to be like. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon, the sun was shining, and the clouds were scattered perfectly for a day of cloud gazing. This was the kind of day where you don't think about the temperature, you have no reason to, as you're neither cold nor hot.
Nestled within the landscape of the city were the sounds of a saxophone. The closeness of the buildings created just enough echo to create the perfect sound. You could also hear the noise of traffic, but the beauty of the music encapsulates you so entirely that the traffic noise ceases to exist.
There's a black metal bench and on that bench lays a Saxophone case and a reusable grocery bag. Within the bag is personal belongings along with a speaker. The speaker is playing soft jazz. You can think of the speaker in the same way you would think of a background singer. The speaker is not the star of the show.
Sitting ever so humbly next to the items is Walter. Walter did not go to Juilliard or Berkeley. If you were to ask Walter, he would tell you he's not very good. Walter doesn't know much about music; he doesn't know a lot about melodies or timbres. Walter just improvises, he puts some soft music on the speaker, and he simply plays along.
People pass Walter by as he plays. Most pass by without a word spoken and simply enjoy the sounds passing through their ears. Some stop and watch while they listen, as if their ears said to the eyes "this is amazing, you have to check this out", and a few people give Walter some money to show him gratitude for blessing them with his performance.
A little girl around the age of five enters the scene. She runs up to Walter and stops dead in her tracks. Her eyes were bulging, her smile encompassed her entire face, and she along with time vanished into the music...
The little girl’s mother gives her some money to give to Walter, she approaches him as if he were a superhero. Her mother tells Walter how much the little girl Loves music and how she just had to come listen to it up close. The little girl brings Walter back to the time he was just a little boy and the first time he heard a street musician. He remembers the feeling he got when he heard live music for the first time and the day he fell in Love with music.
You could say that Walter plays music for the tips, or that he plays music because he has nothing better to do. It would be a very persuasive argument that he does it simply because he Loves music. Walter would probably even say that he does it for the Love of music. Somewhere deep down inside of Walter, he does it for the moments like what he had with the little girl. Her life forever changed in that moment, and he got to witness the beauty of someone falling in Love with music for the first time.