Thursday, April 16, 2009

A Gem of a Book and Its Average Cover

If you haven't heard of Susan Boyle or seen her performance you've got to check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY


Her story is at once both a representation of triumph over preconception, and disturbing evidence of the lack of depth currently existing in humanity. No one who saw Susan Boyle was expecting what came out of her mouth, no one. We took our opinions about her external self and extended them to a judgment and dismissal of her as a human being.

Now why did this woman become a worldwide sensation, over 50 million views on Youtube, virtually overnight? Because she conquered the obsession with packaging. People like Susan Boyle give us hope in the idea that good is good, no matter what form it's in. She gives us hope that being good is good enough, that beauty and charisma are not necessary to succeed when every day we are presented with evidence to the contrary. She reminds us that we need to be willing to see positivity and goodness wherever it is, without some preconceived notions of what it should look like. Susan Boyle was and is a symbol of something we all want to believe in...that covers really don't have anything to do with the quality of the books, you never know what ugliness an attractive cover is hiding or what beauty an unappealing cover is protecting.

6 comments:

Annekah said...

Isn't she amazing??? I have watched that YouTube video like 5 times! I love it :)

LisaNScott said...

I love the idea that someone with actual non-manufactured talent is being recognized and holding true to her self. It gives me hope that maybe we all still do believe in things that are real and valuable.

Glad you blogged about it. Susan Boyle is now up there with giggling babies, sunsets and puppies for things that make me smile and have hope in humanity!

Lindsey Buck said...

My friend actually showed this to me for the first time last night. I loved it. Way to show the misconceptions of society what's up.

Nicole Tillmann said...

Jen you now can expect me to be a devoted reader to your blog. But this story is such a great one. The first time I saw it on the news, I will admit that tears welled up in my eyes and I found it so inspirational. It is so refreshing to watch a story like this one while being bombarded with words of how we are never good enough. Wow, I really diggin' deep right now, but thanks for blogging about it. It is a kick butt story.

Lisa Weiler said...

i feel so happy to have seen you twice this weekend :) :) :) :) : ) :)

Anonymous said...

What I think was another slap in the face for all who viewed susan boyle was the fact that she did become a sensation overnight because of her ordinary-ness. I think it is sad that as a human race, an ordinary lady with what most thought was unattractive qualities in her outward appearance, was seen as out of the ordinary. Yes, I LOVED watching her and being astounded at her confidence and talent, but I find myself questioning again why it had to be that way. Ordinary people do extraordinary things every day that go unnoticed. Maybe a lesson we should learn from her is that god really did make us all individual, and there is no need to hide that individuality from the world.