Score One For Us

Score one for the common man (or woman, that is). Susan Boyle, in case you've been hiding in a cave for the past month or so, is the everyday woman who took the world by storm with a great rendition on the reality show, Britain's Got Talent. If you haven't seen it, go to Youtube and put Susan's name in the search box. You'll find several videos...there's one with over 50 million hits. That's probably as good as any to watch.
Everyone is talking about how plain she looks, but has that great voice. I'm not sure that's entirely all there is to it. There are other factors, such as why she was not “discovered” before now, etc. But looks do count in our culture. And they count far more than they should.
I struggle with this on almost a daily basis. I am constantly running into people in my line of work that I haven't seen before or haven't had dealings with before. Many of them are aged and many are infirm in some physical way. They use a walker, or they struggle to care for themselves, or whatever. Even knowing that I will see and work with many people in this business who are just that way, I still have to correct myself mentally because I tend to rush to a judgment on the basis of what I see.
When I find myself in that position, sometimes I can talk myself out of it. Other times I find that it's helpful to interact with that person in some way. Usually, I find during the interaction that there's quite a gem inside that, although it may need a little polishing, is well worth keeping. I then wonder why I ever thought the way I did about that person.
Susan may not win whatever contest she's in on the TV. That doesn't matter. What does matter is that someone, somewhere will take a look at how he or she tends to judge people and circumstance based merely on what is seen as run through the prism of societal expectations, and decide that there's something inherently wrong with that method of judgment. If even one person changes for the better as a result, Susan will have been successful far beyond what she could ever have hoped.