The column I submitted last week was on the ubiquitous Susan Boyle. Most readers know by now that she's led a quiet Catholic life of service to her family, which is entirely commendable. She touched heartstrings in many of us who had such delightful people in own small circles growing up.
In my earliest years, I lived with my grandparents on a postage stamp sized lot in a large steel city. Our working class neighborhood housed first- and second-generation immigrants, mostly from Europe, who presided over orderly homes, clean-swept streets and trimmed lawns. Meals were on a time-table, chores were a priority and affection was measured in acts of love and service – usually.
There were some rare evenings when the children in our house, all cousins and close in age, begged and cajoled my dear granny to let her hair down (after the grandpa had gone to bed, of course). When the kitchen counter was wiped and the last tea towel hung up for the evening, the quiet pleas would commence, and when we saw the twinkle in her eye, we knew the fun would soon begin.
Granny had left
The recent sensation of Susan Boyle,
To add a bittersweet quality to the moving story, we learned that her mum always encouraged her singing, but despite investing in voice lessons, her subsequent grief over her mother’s death silenced all song. After two years of mourning, she took the stage, and within the first two measures of her chosen piece, the judges and audience were stunned. Seconds later, they were on their feet roaring their approval. It was the perfect Cinderella story – goodness and virtue inspired her at that moment, and an unexpected gift was shared with the world.
Now many who have talent prepare themselves immediately to seek the venues that will showcase their gifts – usually the ability to sing, to dance, or to act. Some find fame, some fizzle and others fall flat – with the finest becoming household names. Others, though, have different priorities; and what is most unique about them is their choice not to shine.
It must be admitted that many who want to be discovered are constrained by family responsibilities, financial woes or cultural taboos, but what we have with darling Susan is her positive decision to put the needs of others first. She had dreams, but she also knew the value of filial piety – which made her eventual debut all the more delightful. Postponing it all those years didn’t make her bitter at all – but only added depth to her evident good nature.
While many assume that the inherent lesson is to avoid judging books by their covers, the more important consideration should be to assess how much of her captivating performance was technical perfection, and how much was actually the ineffable qualities that humility, self-abnegation and generous love added to her voice. Women who choose to serve others are gifts in and of themselves. If there are even more treasures to be bestowed, how much more will they be appreciated when deferred until after the washing up.
The rest of my columns can be found here. They may be reproduced with attribution.
Comments
“People have realized that the complete removal of the feminine element from the Christian message is a shortcoming from an anthropological viewpoint. It is theologically and anthropologically important for woman to be at the center of Christianity."
This is just another of the unintended consequences of the cultural acceptance of contraception and abortion! Men's sexuality has been robbed of its creative essence. It is now viewed as something that imposes a burden on women (when conception happens to occur), something used to control women or something that is purely recreational. Why would men bother?? In taking away their responsibility, we've also robbed them of their significance! In the big picture of humanity, men have been made into nothing more than a nuisance women have to figure out how to control in order to bring about the next generation. Men don't see it as their task to protect the vulnerable because they see themselves as the vulnerable ones. A few well preserved vials of sperm would make men entirely obsolete in the world's ethos today!!
That is astounding Robin, and good for you for standing up. At the heart of that matter, I think, is even worse than a gender mixing message. There is an increased sharper and sharper focus on the "self." Solid Catholic teaching returns our focus away from ourselves to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The original sin, Eve denied her womanhood when she desired to be like "gods." Since the only god she knew was the Father. Where was Adam? He stood impotent... in other words, they were divorced. There's a young girl at Robin's son's high school who was just told that she is the center of the universe and it's a tragic disservice to her.
Ditto what Mary said! A lot of high schools have very poor math and science depts, for boys and girls. I also am educated as a chemical engineer, but chose to teach the two years before we had children because its hours were more suited to spending time with children. (I was looking ahead). When it came time and I was pregnant with our first, I realized that I did not want to leave him with someone else, and was able to stay home full time. I am not sure it would have been that easy if we were used to another engineering income and not just a private school teacher income. Also some of my first job offers were out on oil rigs - I had no interest in that at all even though I enjoyed my engineering classes and did well in them. No one discouraged me from an engineering job, on the contrary I got a lot of flack for my decision not to pursue an engineering career.
I've been lurking, but this is one that irritates me. Beats the heck out of me what these "barriers" are. I was educated as a chemical engineer, where 1/3 of our class was women. However, in electrical engineering, only 1 or 2 out of 30 were women. Is it possible that women are Just Not Interested in some areas? Nah, it must be The Man keeping us down so we must legislate (and, I agree -- when they say "legistlate", I hear "quota"). And actually, I have a friend that was also a chemical engineer. When she lost her job, she decided not to go back into engineering and started working from home so she could spend more time with her 3 kids. Also, if nothing else, there are all kinds of incentives for women to enter science and engineering -- scholarships not available to men, guaranteed housing on campuses that do not guarantee housing to the general population, etc. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that schools in general are not preparing students for the hard sciences. It is truly a sad state of affairs, the lack of science education these days.