I listened to Susan Boyle sing about a dream last week and I wept. Her voice and demeanor touched me deeply and I a not sure why. Maybe it was because she was so plain, poor and plump and so perky despite it. Maybe it was because she sang so powerfully despite all the audience and judges expectations.
Have you ever read the mission statement of a contemporary business? Almost every one of them says they will "Meet or surpass expectations." Do they really or do you get pretty much what you expected. I bought breakfast this morning at MacDonald's and it was good but not much more than I expected. The egg was cooked correctly and it was a bit cool to my tongue so it did not exceed my expectation of a hot meal.
But that is OK because it was pretty cheap. Once I visited the Ritz Carlton and got an egg that was runny despite my request that it be well done. It was beneath my expectations for that place.
I wept at the ability of Susan Boyle to greatly exceed the expectations of the judges whose smirks told us they expected an off key voice from an off key looking person. I was rooting for her before I heard her sing a note because I always root for the underdogs.
Susan Estrich wrote a powerful review of her singing that you can access in The Rasmussin Report.
Gary Sweeten
2 comments:
You know that says something about you whenever you say you are the type that roots for the underdogs don't you? It's that southern Indiana/Illinois Scots-Irish thing that the favored were the rich, biggest, silver spoon types and usually the underdogs were bluecollar, underprivileged. Maybe..."take the boy out of the country but can't take the....";well you know.
At one time I was embarrassed by my roots. Now I tend to understand them and take some pride in what I have achieved despite the anti-intellectual aspects of my Red Neck background. (Did you know that the term Red Neck came from the Scots Irish not from Dixie?
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