This was emailed to me and you MUST see it!!!!

Susan Boyle's audition for Britian's Got Talent 2009. It brought tears to my eyes!

I'm really OFFENDED by the kind of press it is getting. What I saw: a woman who got up the courage to SHARE her gift with the world.

A woman who had the courage to stand up to a VAPID music industry that equates youth and a standardized industry idealized image of beauty that is as overproduced as the music usually is too, with talent. A woman who was clearly, a good soul, but had very likely spent a lifetime second and third guessing her talent and finally at 47 had watched enough canned reality shows to feel confident she had real talent and was ready to share it and take that risk. And it was a huge risk putting herself out there like that. The song she chose was perfect, for the sensitivity, power and range she has singing, but also where she is in her life. Her nerves showed in her giggle and movement and well maybe its cause I identified with that giggle and that awkwardness but I felt for her from the moment I saw her backstage.

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high,
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.

Then I was young and unafraid
When 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
As they turn your dreams to shame.

And still I dream he'll come to me
And we will live our lives together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are 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 seems
Now life has killed
The dream I dreamed.

But what the press is saying is completely different than what my first impression was, from MTV - "Audience members rolled their eyes at what appeared to be yet another fame-seeking weirdo throwing herself in front of a bus for the entertainment of millions of U.K. viewers".

How is a woman in her 40's who has always dreamed of being in musical theatre a fame seeking wierdo, but a 22 year old who's always dreamed of being a pop star isn't?

What I want is a culture where everyone believes in themselves and trusts their talents and shares them. A culture where the arts are integrated into every day life. Where people trust that they can make art. Where everyone can sing, and dance, and celebrate without being self conscious about not fitting into a narrow perception of who is ALLOWED to have talent.