Susan Boyle: Where Angels Rest

Just for once, I'm finding myself swept along with a pop culture phenomenon.

At first glance, my favorite tune so far this year checks all the wrong boxes. Firstly, it's from a musical (I'm not a big fan of musicals). Secondly, it's a live performance (again, not usually my thing). Third, it's from a (whisper this) reality TV show. An audition, even. And, quite honestly, if somebody had told me a few days ago it was possible for a middle-aged spinster from West Lothian to bring me to tears in front of my computer, I would have probably had a good laugh.

Enter Susan Boyle.

By now, her audition segment from last Saturday's Britain's Got Talent show has become a YouTube phenomenon, with over 4,000,000 hits. For the record, that's more than ten times more than any other clip this week. For once, I am more than happy to go along with the crowd.

To say she was phenomenal is an understatement. And, in watching the clip, you were able to see in the faces of the judges and the audience a sublime moment of recognition - when, after spending years listening to music, you finally hear something that makes you feel like you have been deaf for your whole life. As her voice effortlessly glides to the rafters, we are also transported - to a place where angels rest and the world we live in becomes beautiful again.

Like many others, I have watched this over and over again. Utterly fantastic.

This evening, I tried to watch some of the American Idol performances. It was tough. Because now, if I am not spontaneously standing up in front of the TV, tears streaming down my face, and clapping like a madman, I will probably be disappointed.

I showed the clip to my wife and daughter. My wife made a very perceptive comment. She said that it made her feel sad that this person's gift has been hidden for so many years. My own thought is this: wherever God is, whoever God is, and whatever God might be, He has a great big grin on His face. Because millions of people, all over the world, are now discovering one of His best-kept secrets.

As for myself, I'm praying for an album.

UPDATE - One year later: Well we all know what happened. Even though it was released in November, this lady was to have the top-selling album in the UK for 2009 and the second highest selling album in the US with over three million copies sold in just six weeks.

As for the YouTube clip, it still brings a smile to my face. Best reality TV moment ever. Even though I might have sounded like an idiot last year, I stand by my comments. Well done, that lass!!

Don't Know Why There's No Sun Up In The Sky

Just thought I would take a moment to remember my grandmother, Norah Lillian Mansell, who is sadly no longer with us but was born 100 years ago today, February 5th 1909.

Norah was a quietly remarkable woman. Born into a wealthy and influential family, she chose to elope to London with her beloved fiance Albert, a dashing carpenter of modest means. Their extraordinarily touching relationship is chronicled in a series of letters dating from the war years, when Albert served in the Royal Corps of Engineers.

I remember her for many things. One of my earliest memories is of watching the Doctor Who serial Terror of the Zygons in her little bungalow at Christmas time. I remember her devotion to her friends and her love of her family, her cat Blackie, her regular supply of PG Tips cards, and playing Lexicon with me on a regualar basis.

I can still taste her tea (no-one else made it quite the same), inevitably served in a little yellow mug, and the various treasures and ornaments that she collected over the years, including a simple plastic cross that reflected her honest faith and the quiet pain of the loss of her husband from a premature heart attack and her only son Alan from a tragic plane crash during his service with the Royal Air Force.

I remember playing her one of my favorite albums (Jeff Lynne's Armchair Theatre) in the car and we discussed two songs, "Stormy Weather" and "September Song" that she also remembered very fondly from her younger days.

She slipped away from this world in much the same way that she lived in it, quietly and unobtrusively, having taught me at least one important lesson - that a modest life, a humble heart, and earnest devotion to those closest to you is not only an acceptable ambition, but ultimately the only enduring one worth pursuing. Today, I feel her prescence and am comforted by the thought that somewhere out there her love shines on, a gentle beacon to us who linger yet in life's daily shadows.