Susan Boyle has touched hearts everywhere. But as usual, mainstream media has missed the point. There is much more to this than the cliche Cinderella story.
Leave it to the mainstream media (MSM) to take the poignancy out of the moment. We love her, we watch her over and over, we are reduced to tears. But some media cynics just don’t get it. Kind of like how the pre Christmas Eve Scrooge was unable to see what most dogs and kids knew all along. They tell us that we are overreacting, and tritely dismiss her popularity as coming from the disparity between how she looks and how she sounds.
I say NOT SO FAST! I think this is more than just a morality lite sound bite, “can’t judge a book by its cover;” we should have known that what was in the package with the plain wrapping was better than what was in the one with the fancy ribbons. We are humbled at her magical Seraphin like voice because we are reacting to the power of our own experience. Yes, we are taught to obsess on all the wrong things: looks, fame, fortune, power and a whole list of other externals. But we don’t just judge others on those things, we judge ourselves as well. How many of us have shackled our dreams because we don’t feel adequate enough? (Insert pretty, thin, young etc here!) Everyone knows if you don’t have the right props you won’t succeed. Be a good little person and bow out until someone finds the right product you can buy to fix yourself. When someone just like us dares; well, how dare they? We cringe with resentment; deep down, we would never have the nerve. And yet, when she opened her mouth to sing (or let the angels sing through her), all that melted away. She dashed our defenses, pierced a million pretenses. Dysfunctional cultural delusions crumbled faster than credit default swaps because they couldn’t hold up to the moment of truth. Real greatness comes only from the heart and the soul. And when one has this, all else is eclipsed.
The lesson of Susan could never be more salient than at this very moment. Our society is falling under the weight of its own lies. Corruption, cheating, dishonesty everywhere we look. What isn’t a lie anymore? From the products we buy to the politicians who are bought off, nothing is as it seems. As we make our way through the fog of fraud, we stumble upon authenticity and are stunned by it. We weep because we are still able to recognize it. This isn’t like how our taste buds have been so deadened by processed food the natural doesn’t taste right to us anymore. We still respond to real beauty! We are not soul dead yet. Maybe we will be o.k. We just need to stop listening to those leading us down false paths for their own agendas and listen to our own inner wisdom. I think Susan really is an angel in disguise letting us know the only thing we can trust is the sincerity deep within ourselves. If we follow that, it is not too late to find our way home.
Susan’s performance is a modern day archetypical moment. But I hope we are careful in choosing the right fairy tale. MSM is only too happy to use the rags to riches cliché of Cinderella. But this goes way beyond Cinderella. This is the Buddha as beggar, the goddess as goat herder. This lesson is a reminder of the inextricable link between greatness, humility and simplicity. Leave the Cinderellas to the commercial sponsors. Although Sleeping Beauty may not too far off, because Susan’s true greatness can only be appreciated by the pure of heart.