SHE DREAMED A DREAM (a.k.a. Good on You, Susan). Pts. 1-2

I never tire of watching one particular video on Youtube. By now, of course, “everyone and his brother” are familiar with Susan. I mean, she is a household name. But there was a time when

…she wasn’t.

At this juncture I don’t recall if I was watching the program live, or whether, for that matter, if it is even possible to watch “Britain’s Got Talent” live here “in the colonies.” At any rate, I have viewed the rerun of that particular segment again and again.

Amazing, that it could have been almost a decade since a frumpy little Scottish woman with severely untamed eyebrows strutted her way across the stage, and in between communicating her desires to make a name like Elaine Paige, she lapsed into her heavily accented ‘strange and wonderful’ banter, along with accompanying physiological movements, with judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan.

If you haven’t seen the video, (but who hasn’t) you will immediately note the reaction of the audience. They stare in disbelief at the plump, archaically-dressed little woman, and shake their heads; while whispering loudly to one another.

Susan remarked later,

“I know what they were thinking, but why should it matter as long as I can sing? It's not a beauty contest.”

It is to her credit that she didn’t immediately hang her head and walk dejectedly off the stage, rather than (as she did) proceeding with the song she “brought with her.”

Pt. 2

The contestant had barely opened her mouth and sang the first few notes of, “I Dreamed a Dream” (from Les Miserables) when the entire climate in the huge auditorium immediately changed.

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high and life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving

Each and every one of the three judges seemed frozen in time, and their mouths hung open; before huge grins enveloped their unbelieving faces.

Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung no wine untasted

And perhaps as Susan crooned the second verse of the song Simon, (or Amanda or Piers) remembered her short interview, and her hope to be as well-known as Elaine Paige.

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
As they turn your dream to shame

One or more of the judges must have thought,

“This frumpy, little 47 year old is better than Elaine Paige!”

And still I dreamed that he'll come to me
That we will live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather

And now Amanda was standing, and Simon was doing something entirely uncharacteristic for him.

…He was smiling!

And as Simon smiled, Piers’ face was enveloped with one of those sweet little grins for which he is known.

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed

Afterward

They say, “you should never judge a package by its wrapper.”
If this was ever true, it was true of Susan, and each of the judges “fell all over themselves,” as they expressed their regrets for having misjudged the innate worth, or at least the abilities, of the woman who appeared before them.

Well, the rest is, as they say, history. Susan went on to not only aspire to be like Elaine Paige, but to

…sing a duet with her.

Susan Boyle is a household name now, and she has undergone an abject transformation; both physically and monetarily. She was an unknown quantity then; a diamond in the rough (Very rough).

And unlike the lyrics of the song she sang that evening, the dream she dreamed blossomed and grew and filled the earth with the color and joy which had too long lay innate within her.



By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 54. Copyright pending

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