Hidden Susan Boyle in all of us

Susan Boyle, she has the gift and she's one of us

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, April 19 2009

Why does Susan Boyle win our hearts? She has a gorgeous voice. I still can’t believe the emotion it expresses. Broadway stars and Tony Bennett have practiced a lifetime for that tone, the inflection, the feeling. God gave it to her to sing while she cooked bread for him mom. As an amateur singer who fell in love with Elvis and Mario Lanza on tone alone, I’m floored.

Susan was dissed by the smarty pants judges. Imagine Simon being floored. Wouldn’t you like that to happen for you when some critical person in power said you weren’t good enough? Not good enough to get a job, get a loan, be someone’s friend. Perhaps even not good enough to marry someone you loved, not good enough to be a part of some uppity family.

The ugly duckling story is part of it. Most of us are plain looking, a tad over the government weight chart. We have defects. I’ve walked with a limp all my life and avoided mirrors. In my imagination I don’t limp: I walk like Mel Gibson. Here is a person who is just like us, ordinary and yet extraordinary all at once. Maybe in this time of recession, greed and worry, it’s good to remember that God looks into our souls not the the few millimeters of skin that covers our bodies.

We are not what we look like. We are something different – how we act. Looks are irrelevant and often a negative clue to someone’s personality.

The most beautiful person in the world to me was my mother-in-law. By looks she was short, over weight and bent by raising a family in poverty.

Martha had the biggest and most generous heart of anyone on this planet. She was Mother Theresa on PEI. Despite her own trials, she looked after everyone else. At her house she cooked a big supper every night into her old age. Martha would give you tea, desert and then ask you to take a plate to one of the local bachelors who needed a meal.

One Saturday she asked me to drive her to Montague. Sure I said. Can we pick up Leslie, an old bachelor. Sure I said. We drove Leslie all over Montague and Poole’s Corner. The trip was to help Leslie not her. Martha taught me about patience, kindness and not judging people by their clothes or how they looked.

The whole entertainment industry plays on the perfection image which is about as false as it gets. Looks mean nothing. Real people look like real people not movie stars.

We like Susan Boyle because she is a fantastic singer and she looks like us. She’s probably been dissed a lot in her life and there she is all cheery. Susan would have been cheery if she hadn’t won anything. Another important lesson in life.

Here’s that fan site.