Monday - April 20, 2009

rush to innocence

With an extraordinary gift of voice and an even more extraordinary projection of purity, sincerity, hope and just enough spunk to keep it real, Susan Boyle has captured our hearts.  

In a way, she is us.  The kind of person you wouldn't give a second glance on the train.  Unless she was talking to a friend, and her broad smile and twinkling eyes might make you nod at the inner beauty leaking out.  She is unemployed, living in an ordinary place among ordinary people struggling through life looking for meaning, beauty, love, and a laugh or two.  Just like the rest of us.

But Susan is much, much more than that.

Nearly 48 years old and never been kissed.  (Huh?  No way.  Yes way!)  But not due to any lack of love in her heart - listen.

Susan lived at home taking care of her aging mother until she died recently.  This brave audition was for her mom, she said in a post-show interview.  She doesn't waste her unemployment feeling sorry for herself - she spends her time volunteering with her church and helping the elderly in her community.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, greed and corruption have grown so monstrously out of control that they've destroyed life as we knew it.  No longer can a person expect to be able to support a family with just an honest day's work.  The most we can do is "hope" for things to get a little better, never mind daring to "dream".  

Then came Susan.  Is she for real?  A person of impeccable moral virtue with a glowing spirit that dares to dream?  And the hutzpah to actually chase that dream!

Yet as much as I love her, I'm afraid.  I want her to crawl back to her village right now (!) and stay there nice and safe.  Untainted by the frenzied feeding of media and fans.  Pure, innocent, spunky, lovable and talented Susan.  

But she has a right to follow her dream to its fullness, whatever that may be.

So for now, we can revel in the beauty of her moment, bask in the glow of a dream fulfilled.  And pray.  Thanking God for her talent and spirit, and begging Him to keep safe this new embodiment of virtue and hope.