I've been giving some thought to the hoopla surrounding Susan Boyle, the 47-year old Scottish woman who has wowed the world with her performance on "Britain's Got Talent." Granted, her singing is utterly amazing, but I think the real reason her story has exploded around the world can be summed up in a simple word:
Beauty.
Living in a foreign country, I get more world news than I do/did in the United States, and let me tell you, there's a lot of very ugly shit going on around the world. From the global economic crisis, to acts of violence in Thailand and India, from the ongoing piracy off the coast of Africa to the hateful rhetoric being propogated by a so-called "news" organization in the United States, it ain't pretty. And in the midst of this and all the frenzy of the world, a simple, unassuming woman from Scotland, with an incredible talent known to only a few, made us all stop for a moment to listen, to forget the ugliness to focus on the beauty of her voice. It was pure, it was genuine, it was a gift of the moment.
In this world of manufactured beauty, where one can be nipped and tucked to so-called perfection, where "talent" is often assigned to those with the right look, we often lose sight of unadulterated beauty, whether it be a sunset in the desert, the glorious scent of lilacs in the spring, or the achingly beautiful voice of a woman blessed with a gift from the heavens.
Thank you, Ms. Boyle, for an unexpected moment of beauty.