As I was enjoying the thrill of waiting for the play Doubt to start at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, I read the following by the playwright, John Patrick Stanley, and I knew I was in for a treat:
“There is an uneasy time when belief has begun to slip but hypocrisy has yet to take hold, when the consciousness is disturbed but not yet altered. It is the most dangerous, important, and ongoing experience of life. The beginning of change is the moment of Doubt. It is that crucial moment when I renew my humanity or I become a lie.”
After the experience of the play, I looked at the world differently. Stanley suggests that doubt requires more courage than conviction does, and I wondered how that plays out in the world. Enter Susan Boyle.
As I write this, the You Tube video of Susan Boyle’s performance at Britain’s Got Talent has been viewed over 62 million times. We watch Simon Cowell ask her a few questions before she sings. Even though I know what is going to happen, it is perfectly clear she doesn’t fit the mold. She doesn’t look or act “the part.” When I watched this I knew what was coming, but I also knew in my soul that I would have reacted the same way as the audience. I felt, with conviction, that there was no way this gal was going to be for real. Then she sings.
The judges’ chins drop, the crowd rises, smiles are everywhere. Tears surface. Susan Boyle, with the doubt she inevitably carried in people’s reaction to her, dreamed her dream.
Stanley’s words offer so much about how we see others. Thank you to Susan Boyle for reminding us to renew our humanity, to dream our dream. For reminding us that there are Susan Boyles everywhere in our world, should we choose to doubt our fixed assumptions and recognize them.
Thanks for linking “Doubt” to the Susan Boyle story, Beth! The shared cynicism when Susan comes to the stage was very saddening for me. I think that speaks to the confidence we hold in “consumer packaging.” What would the world be like if we trusted in human worth, however it is packaged?