A lesson on judgement and humility

I want to share this beautiful message that I received from a very good friend of mine… It’s truly beautiful…

At the start of this brand new year, I warmly invite you to take a walk down memory lane with me to the year 2009 when Susan Boyle a Scottish wannabe singer, stepped onto the stage for a Britain’s Got Talent (BGT) audition.

My reason for doing this will become clear if you bear with me a little longer.

While hundreds of millions of people all over the world have seen her audition that went viral in only a few hours, I cannot help wondering how many people have actually considered and understood what actually happened on that day ?

This is my take on what actually unfolded in her 2.5 minute version of the legendary song, “ I dreamed a dream” at the 2009 BGT audition

Let’s start at the beginning. Susan had been a singer from the age of 12. She received singing coaching and won many local singing competitions. She was persuaded to enter the BGT competition by her mother. She came second in this competition in spite of being the overwhelming favourite.

Her meteoric rise to fame is chronicled in great detail in a Wikipedia report which is a fascinating read.

It has been said that music is a “ carrier wave of consciousness” impacting on the music, composers, conductors, technicians and listeners.

Boyle’s BGT song choice was brilliant because like “love”, it tapped into everyone’s innate, life affirming need and desire to dream and imagine.

Elaine Paige who Boyle said in her audition was her hero, aptly described Susan as a “role model for dreaming”

Shortly after her momentous BGT performance, Susan and Elaine did a beautiful concert duet that epitomised a dream come true for Susan. …. see link below

Now back to the 150 sec musical experience for the 3 judges, 2 backstage managers, a few hundred audience members and hundreds of millions of remote viewers.

I believe this was actually a unique “born again” musical experience. As in the case with religious born again experiences, there can be no going back from such a happening.

Please watch this clip again paying careful attention to the shifts in both yourself but especially, to the shifts you can see occurring very rapidly in the judges and the audience. The magical transformation from closed minds and hard hearts that were initially cynical, judgemental and scornful to radically changed thoughts and feelings of joy, delight, admiration and humility, was an exquisite personal and collective healing manifestation.

In just 2.5 minutes we were reminded that when hopes, dreams and God given talents are aligned, miracles can and do occur. I am hard pressed to image any single actioned force or energy, capable of this magical healing transformation.

Prayers, meditations, counselling, medications, vocations, courses, etc, etc are often used for the healing of physical, mental or emotional imbalances. What effect would any of these healing modalities have had on transforming the thoughts and feelings of the hundreds of millions of people before Susan started singing her song ? Ponder this question and let it sink in for a while.

Now more than ever before, there is a pressing need for personal and collective healing. This communique is a clarion call and reminder that if one of your New Year’s resolutions and dreams has anything to do with happiness through healing, turn to MUSIC for answers and solutions. Anything you do this coming year that increases your connections, interactions and relationships with MUSIC such as listening, playing, learning, researching, sharing, exploring and discovering, is a step in the right direction.

Shakespeare’s famous quote in the Twelfth Night play “ If music be the food of love, play on” was both a statement and a question. The assumption was that music was the food of love.

The Susan Boyle audition answered this question unequivocally because her sung song in only 2.5 minutes, got hundreds of millions of people all over the world to love. admire and experience her through their hearts ears and eyes …. this miracle is still going strong after 14 years.

Enjoy the experience once again mindful that my wish for you besides a grateful new year, is that you also have a musically imbued new year

https://youtu.be/ijDQ9OKNu4E

Link to duet with Elaine Paige a few months after her sensational BGT audition

https://youtu.be/sF1hIaHKANk

SONG LYRICS

I dreamed a dream in time gone by when hope was high and life worth living

I dreamed that love would never die and prayed that God would be forgiving

Then I was young and unafraid and dreams were made and used and wasted

There was no ransom to be paid, no song unsung, no wine untasted

But the tigers come at night

with their voices soft as thunder as they tear your hopes apart and turn your dreams to shame

And still I dream he'd come to me, that we would live the years together

But there are dreams that cannot be and storms we cannot weather

I had a dream my life would be so different from this hell I'm living so different now from what it seemed

Now life has killed the dream, I dreamed

Songwriters: Alain Albert Boublil / Claude Michel Schonberg / Herbert Kretzmer / Jean Marc Natel