"The SECOND Thing I Noticed About Susan Boyle..."

Susan Boyle.

If you haven’t heard the name, welcome home.

How was your visit to Mars?

Feel free to pause here and Google her, if necessary, so you can catch up with the story.

Or just take a look at the video and you’ll get caught up in a flash.
Okay.

First things first.

This isn’t going to be another of “those clear grasp of the obvious” pieces about “judging a book by its cover.”

My grandkids could watch the video and connect the dots to that lesson.

To paraphrase Forrest Gump, “here’s all I have to say about that…”

I got teary and felt the hair stand up the very first time I saw the video.

The effect hasn’t diminished much with each subsequent viewing.

What I didn’t realize I realized, at first, was the sense of irony about it all.

And, Lord knows, I do loves me some irony in the morning.

So here’s the thing.

This very unassuming woman, armed only with a God given talent and the courage of her convictions and surely aware that she would, at best, be doubted and, at worst, be mocked and ridiculed, walked out onto a bare stage in front of millions of people and, in less than four minutes, laid waste to the decades old perception that those whose ambition is to “entertain” us, but lack the conventional “look” need not apply.

And the wave of “oh my God!” that swept over the judges and audience in that auditorium during those four minutes not only instantly washed away the doubts and ridicule, but, just as the tide that rises all boats, brought out in every single man, woman and child witnessing the event that remarkable part of our natures that has us cheering through our tears at that spirit that has succeeded at making us ashamed of ourselves.

It doesn’t get any cooler than that.

And the irony?

Were it not for the technological advances of television, cable, satellite and, of course, the Internet that allowed millions of us to experience this, only one very lucky audience and their immediate circle of friends and family would have ever heard the name Susan Boyle, let alone been washed in the flood.

There was a time when talent was as much about ability as it was about appearance.

In less than four minutes, Susan Boyle sang us back to that time.

And she couldn’t have done that without those technological advances.

I bet you loves you some irony, too.