Gobsmacked

Hopefully by now you’ve watched the video clip of Susan Boyles’ performance on “Britain’s Got Talent,” where she completely wow-ed the audience and judges with her incredibly wonderful performance of “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables.

Susan has been described as frumpy, middle-aged, even a hairy angel. All of these describe perceptions of her physical appearance. I admit that when I watched her clip for the firs time, I was probably like most other people who’ve watched it—I focused on her looks and had pretty low expectations of her singing abilities. What one has to do with the other, I don’t know, except that here in America we are bombarded daily with news of celebrities and “beautiful” people (at least according to some), so it’s hard not to focus on that right off the bat. Plus, just as a human being, the first thing we learn about another person, provided we have sight, is what they look like, and it just seems ingrained into our nature to automatically start making impressions and judgments based on what we see.

So now the bandwagon, which is rolling quickly and picking up a lot of followers, is that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. I saw a Susan Boyle fan site tonight that’s offering pins and mugs that say, “I Dreamed a Dream,” and “Never judge a book by its cover.” The song title and lyrics were a perfect fit for Susan to sing, as she’d carried this dream of being a singer for so many years. And it’s true that we shouldn’t judge people by their looks. I mean, really, who are we to declare the beauty (or non-beauty) of a fellow creation? Yet we do.

While I think it’s a valid lesson to try and keep our hearts and minds open to people, that’s not the main thing that has touched me the most about Susan’s story. After I watched her performance for the first time, I was awed and wanted to learn more about her. A search revealed a link to STV, a Scottish TV station, who brought Susan, a fellow Scot, onto one of their shows for a brief interview.  http://video.stv.tv/?bcpid=1610699553&bctid=19521357001 .

What I keep focusing on is Susan saying, “Basically I wanted to fulfil a wish to my mother that I wanted to do something with my life. Not only that but I felt like I had a bit more to offer.”

A bit more, yes, you could say that. Quite a bit more.

I think there are several reasons why Susan’s performance has resonated with so many of us: none of us want to be judged by our looks either; we admire her courage to sing on TV and in front of judges and so many people; she is the quintessential underdog and we love it when the underdog wins. Her performance has stuck with me more for the way her dream and her desire for more–to have more and to do more–overcame her fear. I have felt many times like I wasn’t being given a chance, was overlooked and underutilized, but a variety of fears kept me from doing anything about it.

I read online today that the female judge on “Britain’s Got Talent,” Amanda Holden, said, “I won’t let Simon make her go to his dentist and I certainly won’t be letting her go to his hairdresser. I think she needs to stay exactly as she is because that’s the reason we love her. The minute we spoil her by turning her into a glamourpuss is going to be when it’s spoilt.” I was happy to read that.

But when asked about a makeover, Susan told one US show: “I’d like that!”I would say the same thing. I just hope they don’t Hollywoodize her so that she becomes a creation of man rather than a creation of her Creator.

Susan cared for her ailing mother, is a devoted cat owner, and according to townspeople a wonderful friend, neighbor and fellow citizen. But she does have more to offer, and I’m so glad she found the courage to share some of it with us. Obviously we need it, since her performance has been watched almost 17 million times! (At least 8 or 10 of those are mine.)

Susan’s story has touched me so much not just because she has an incredible voice—it’s because she wanted more in her life, more from life, and she actually did something about it. Maybe some of the millions of us who are so inspired by her will follow her example.

Dreaming Fields

As best as I can recall, this is only the second song ever to make me cry. It’s “Dreaming Fields” from Trisha Yearwood’s latest CD, Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love. (The first song was “Gold” by Crystal Lewis.) Of course the music and Trisha’s voice make it so much more powerful, but I just had to spread the word. Maybe it made me cry because my cousin and I had been reminiscing, and tomorrow would have been my grandmother’s 86th birthday and I miss her so much. Hope you’ll like it too.

Dreaming Fields, written by Matraca Berg and Gary Harrison

Listen to a clip here: http://www.trishayearwood.com/music/index.php

Oh, the sun rolls down, big as a miracle
And fades from the Midwest Sky
And the corn and the trees wave in the breeze
As if to say goodbye
Oh, my grandfather stood right here as a younger man
In nineteen and forty three
And with the sweat and his tears, the rain and the years
He grew life from the soil and seed

Oh I’m goin’ down to the dreaming fields
But what will be my harvest now
Where every tear that falls on a memory
Feels like rain on the rusted plow
Rain on the rusted plow

And these fields they dream of wheat in the summertime
Grandchildren running free
And the bales of hay at the end of the day
And the scarecrow that just scared me

Now the houses they grow like weeds in a flower bed
This morning the silo fell
Seems the only way a man can live off the land these days
Is to buy and sell

So I’m goin’ down to the dreaming fields
But what will be my harvest now
Where every tear that falls on a memory
Feels like rain on the rusted plow
Rain on the rusted plow

Like the rain on the roof on the porch by the kitchen
Where as my grandmother sings, I can hear if I listen
Running down, running down to the end of the world I loved
This will be my harvest now

And the sun rolls down, big as a miracle
And fades in the Midwest sky
And the corn and the trees wave in the breeze
As if to say goodbye
As if to say goodbye

Happy birthday, Mamaw. I love you.

Going for the High Notes

It’s Easter, and I went to church today. I haven’t been in a while. I just haven’t felt very church-ey lately. But I went today, and during the service a young woman sang a special song. She’s a tiny, petite thing and I didn’t know she could sing, but she stands up there in front of a packed church and starts singing. I knew I recognized the song, but it took me just a bit to figure out it’s “My Redeemer Lives” by Nicole Mullen.

If you know it, then you know it’s not a song for the faint of heart or frail of voice. Even if I had a wonderful voice, I still don’t know if I’d ever choose to sing it, just because to do it justice, you’ve really got to bring it, you know, because Nicole Mullen can bring the house down with that song.

And this girl was bringing it–it was awesome. And amazing for such a strong voice to be coming out of such a tiny body. Toward the end of the song, I was wondering what she was going to do, because the way the original singers sing it is one thing–the way ‘real’ people sing it can be totally different, and not always good. Sometimes people think they’ve got to sing it exactly like the original singer did, and that’s when people can begin to sound like me singing in the shower. Not good. But not this girl. She kind of did a mix of the original with her own thing, and it worked. Then it was time for some high notes, and she went for them. And hit them. It was lovely.

I’m not sure why, but I was touched more by the fact that she went for them than that she hit them. Cause I know I wouldn’t have even tried. I just appreciated her willingness; the success was a bonus.

Hip-Hop

Tonight as I clicked through the channels, I paused for a bit to watch Paula Zahn and some unidentified man talking about the Don Imus/hip-hop language controversy. I have to admit I like some hip hop. I’m a bit like Baloo in the Jungle Book—I’m a sucker for a good beat.

Still, it’s always kinda bothered me that the male artists refer to women as “shorty” and that the women featured in the videos are barely clothed and purely sexual ornaments. So many women fought so hard for women’s rights, equal pay, etc., and this is what it got us? It just puzzles me that none of this really seems to bother many women, at least I’ve never heard anyone making a fuss.

I’m not sure what I think about the Imus situation. The guy on CNN with Paula Zahn (I think his last name was Beck) refuted a point made by music mogul Russell Simmons, who is black and apparently feels that the “n” word is only offensive to blacks when it’s used by a white person. Simmons believes he could walk up to a stranger who’s black, use that word and they would probably hug him. To that, Beck said, “Bull crap. If it’s wrong, it’s wrong.” I understand that word still has a different and negative connotation coming from a white person, but I also understand that it’s either a bad word or it’s not.

What I do know is that I don’t like being referred to by my stature or viewed as purely a sexual object (not that this happens often, but I’m just sayin’…). And I wonder how it all became OK, actually really cool, if you look at how popular hip hop has become. Was it because of political correctness, which led to “anything goes because it’s too dangerous to have absolutes”? I don’t know; just don’t call me Shorty.