Tag: American Idol rejects

I watched the amazing video clip of Susan Boyle on Brittain’s Got Talent again today and also refelected back to the beautiful TV known as the American Idol auditions.  There is something very funny about those auditions for a couple of reasons.  1) The fact that pe0ple have seen the show and know that if they are not any good that Simon is going to trash them like 2 week expired milk.  2) VOLUNTERARILY sign a contract to be put on television and basically, be video foder for us the public to view and critique.  For the longest time, I thought, “Why in the heck would anyone who was that sucky of a singer, put themselves in from of a gajillion people to be made fun of?”  The simple answer, for most all the contestants that really were terrible, was that they really thought they were good enough to make it on the show and in the music industry.  They either had a mom who always told them that they were the greatest thing since sliced bread, which is not bad in itself, but basically lied to them and told them their singing was just as great (notice the mom’s comments on the American Idol link above).  Or maybe they had people around them who were too afraid to tell them they sucked so they encouraged the friend to go on Idol to have Simon “tell it like it is.”  For whatever reason, we all watched that television show like a trainwreak waiting to happen.  Then you have someone like Susan Boyle who, in every respect, is a very odd looking person with a strange lifestyle.  But when she opens her mouth and starts to sing, she could have on a pantsuit made of turd-smears and hair frizzed to the high heavens and it wouldn’t have mattered.
The interesting dichotomy here is that Susan probably didn’t have anyone to tell her that she was a great singer or encourage her to go onto Britain’s Got Talent before this season because of her physical appearance or just a lack of support around her to help tell her she was great.   She was probably always looked down on automatically (like Simon did in the the beginning of her audition) and has not had the people around her all through her life to tell her that she had a special gift to be shared with the world.
The point of my blog today is two questions; 1) are you being honest with people when they ask you for an evaluation of them in some way?  It is more important that we share things with people in private before they possibly look foolish in public. 2)Are you encouraging others to greatness?  Are you investing positive words of encouragement in kids, a spouse or a friend?  We are not on this earth to glorify ourselves but, I believe, to make others better than they would be without us.  Anyone can be a smart alek and say cutting things, but it is a true person of value who says things to build people up and help them be as great as they can be.