Overly Positive

So, here’s a break from the positive things for geeks….or is it?

Those of you who keep up with the intarwebz might have heard about 47 year old Susan Boyle, whose performance of Les Miserables classic “I Dreamed a Dream” on the Britain’s Got Talent reality show surprised, touched, and moved many people.

Seemingly overnight, the masses on Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter have made Susan Boyle into the Internet’s temporary darling. Sure, there are the usual detractors, but moreso than in other cases, these are the folks who just might be saying what they are just to sound different, rather than wanting to be part of the adoring herd.

So why is it that Susan has become so liked and appreciated? Well, when it comes to the Internet generation and those of us who really are geeks (in the sense of the word that we are, at times, not the trendy people society wants us to be, and therefore, sometimes outcast), Susan’s performance means much more than just a really good singing rendition. No, Susan’s triumph on the scale of what it was, was, for 3 short minutes, a victory for anyone who’s been judged on the basis of their look or socialbility rather than on their raw talent. For others, it was also a stand against the superficiality of society – you know, the kind that throws carefully marketed modeling bodies, commercially contrived itemization, and other such stuff at us. The implied message of such things is that while you may choose to employ what’s being sold, there’a always the nod and wink to the back that you have to be “in” with the “in crowd” to ever have any real success with what you want to do. Susan shattered all of that, turning a crowd who was skeptical, even somewhat scoffing, into fans with an inspirational song that might have been more about her than about the character in Les Miz who sang it.

Let’s be honest here – in a few short weeks, days, or maybe even hours, Susan Boyle will be forgotten, filed away among the massive archive of the Internet as a brief moment of “hey, that was cool”. Cynicism will have its throne back on the World Wide Web shortly, but for now, an older Scotswoman has pushed it off, taken a seat, and gotten comfortable. While Susan’s fame will inevitably be short-lived, that doesn’t make what she did any less significant. For 3 minutes, Susan Boyle said, essentially, “I can”, and if you’ve ever had doubts about doing what you’re doing for fear of failing against the cold, hard stone wall of reality, look her up again. I think you’ll find your inspiration.