Before you do anything else, watch this video. Trust me. It's worth the seven minutes. (YouTube has disabled embedding, so you'll have to click through.)
I literally can't remember the last time a singer has brought me to tears. But I've watched that video three times now, and have cried each and every time.
Then read these two articles:
The Beauty That Matters Is On The Inside, by Collette Douglas Home:
Susan is a reminder that it's time we all looked a little deeper. She has lived an obscure but important life. She has been a companionable and caring daughter. It's people like her who are the unseen glue in society; the ones who day in and day out put themselves last. They make this country civilised and they deserve acknowledgement and respect.
'Britain's Got Talent' breakout Susan Boyle: Why we watch...and weep
I'll get back to pondering how Vin Diesel's future might change with the success of Fast & Furious soon enough, but right now I'm pondering why the experience of watching and listening to Ms. Boyle makes so many viewers cry, me among them. And I think I've got a simple answer, at least for me: In our pop-minded culture so slavishly obsessed with packaging -- the right face, the right clothes, the right attitudes, the right Facebook posts -- the unpackaged artistic power of the unstyled, un-hip, un-kissed Ms. Boyle let me feel, for the duration of one blazing showstopping ballad, the meaning of human grace. She pierced my defenses. She reordered the measure of beauty. And I had no idea until tears sprang how desperately I need that corrective from time to time.
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