The Dreamer and the Talent Show

03-Jul-2017

Why is there such a huge following of talent shows?

Because up until the talent shows, the populace was forced to choose among the stars and starlets, the singers, bands, and musicians that executives and corporations chose for us.

The talent shows strike a particular nerve, draw the tears in a way that professional, polished, chosen-and-groomed performers cannot because the talent shows allow the hidden, undiscovered talent that is living in our own town, or the next town over, the average man, the average woman, living through their days, grinding out an existence in factories, fast-food-restaurants, auto-parts shops, or cloistered for some reason of finance or developmental hurdle – the talent show pulls out of this ordinariness the extraordinary and reminds us that those who live among us, that may annoy us on the roadways or in lines at the checkout, that we pass by and think look strange or different are actually talented, that they have a gift that they long for the world to see or hear, that they develop in the long quiet hours of solitude.

The tears tell us that there is more, far more than we could imagine, living in the hearts and minds and souls of the average man and woman than the executives and studios and talent agents tell us about, select for us.

And when we see a massive talent exposed for the first time, when we connect with that life that had been solitary and living strictly on hope and artistic inspiration (perhaps divinely inspired), we feel connected to the real world of Mankind and see ourselves as a moving, living part of that parade and we are forced to acknowledge our own role in that parade, and we are proud that the talent is among us and perhaps for the first time, we are humbled enough to admit our own limitations compared to such talent, but we admit that with pride as we lift a fellow soul from among the masses.