Way To Go Susan Boyle!

Well if you have not viewed it yet, better get to it, the whole world is watching this lady on YouTube. The Internet has not seen anything quite like Susan Boyle, whose online popularity is headed straight to the history books. The video of Boyle’s performance in the reality show “Britain’s Got Talent” has set the world record for the number of views in one week and shows no sign of slowing down.

I do have to admit I was totally taken off guard by her performance. I have seen other auditions on American Idol and from the looks of this lady I was expecting something embarrassing. Wow was I wrong! Her seven minute performance produced a full range of emotions in me, first humor, then shock, followed by warm appreciation and then a dash of self reproof. The question is why? I guess it is because it made me recognize how quick I am to judge people by their appearance. Even though I know that is wrong, I realize that I still do it and I feel bad about that. When she was on the stage and answering questions you can hear all the people laughing, and I was one of them, but we were not laughing with her, we were laughing at her! Well a performance like Susan is always a good wakeup call and to quote one of the commentators, “it was definitely a moment when the meek inherited the earth!”

Her performance also made me feel good as well. It is good to see an underdog come out on top. Sometimes we get so caught up in being professional and wanting everyone to look good and wanting everything to be so together, then along comes someone like Susan Boyle and it does rock your world a bit. I think what also touched me was the song she chose “I dreamed a dream” from Les Miserables, a heartbreaking ballad about unfulfilled dreams. She seemed to be singing it from her heart and to everyone watching her it seemed like the time for her dreams had truly passed her by. Yet as we can see from this performance, a person’s dreams should never be given up just because no one else believes in them. So long as we are alive there is still a chance. It is never too late to become who we are supposed to be. We should be ashamed of the cynicism most of us wallow in, expecting talent only from glitzy packages. What a neat moment in media history.

Hope as well as talent beam from this video and this woman. And oh, we need both so much. Thanks, Susan you rang the bell for those like yourself who keep on believing in their dreams. I am happy for you and for your success. I am thrilled, touched and grateful for Susan Boyle. God bless her!