Mormons Like/Will Like Susan Boyle

If you have not already seen it, you should check out this clip from Britain's Got Talent. I know, however, there is a fair chance that you are among the 30 million others who have already watched Susan Boyle's performance.

Up to this point, this blog has cataloged those things that Mormons like. My approach has been pointing out the familiar and often the obvious.

I am going out on a limb here. In saying that Mormons like or will like Susan Boyle, I am telling you something nobody has pointed out yet. In doing so, there is a risk involved because I may be wrong about Susan Boyle's performance. However, the risk is not too grave because the probability that anyone would care that I was wrong is not very great and the probability that I would care if they did is even more slim.

So, here are a few reasons why I think that Mormons like or will like Susan Boyle's performance. There might be more, but this is a start.

• Mormons love the stories about the imprudence of judging a book by its cover, but her story is better than that. She is the Old Violin, Mr. Kruger living alone with her cat, and the lonely woman waiting by the mailbox all rolled up in one.
• She looks like somebody you might see at church, but she can really sing--a rare combination indeed. I have said before, Mormons have heard much more of their share of bad music. When someone who looks to have come straight from the Relief Society comes out and belts out a song like she does, it truly is a relief for Mormon society.
  
• Susan Boyle's performance provides a great springboard for drawing gospel-related analogies. Her sharing her music, of course, is like church members sharing the Gospel. Her unflappable composure in the face of a jeering crowd is just as a reminder to look past the things of the world. Her reference to her cat Pebbles is like... like... er... really great, and I am sure full of symbolic meaning too.
• In the Internet video of her performance (between 4 minutes even and 4 minutes and 5 seconds to be precise), Simon Cowell looks like a baby smiling due to gas. Mormons love it when babies smile even if it is just gas.
  
• Her performance changed the mind of the audience, the judges, and presumably most of the people watching her video on the Internet. Mormons like it when optimism and gumption overcomes cynicism and timidity.
  

* Back to the obvious: Funeral potatoes out of the blue says, "I know you need potatoes, cream of mushroom soup, and cheese--even on days that people don't die." If you liked this brief thought, I suggest you subscribe to my tweets on Twitter.