your beautiful
one of the few good memories of my teaching degree was a lecturer who would start every presentation with an uplifting music video to help get us into a ‘positive and conductive mindstate for learning’. i learned to always come 10 minutes late. but one time she came in even later than me, and stalling while her powerpoint downloaded, she said: ‘so on the radio this morning, the government was saying that 73% of teenagers suffer from poor body image. no one should feel like this. i hope that none of you do. and, well, i'd just like to remind you all, each and every one of you, that….’ she opened youtube and typed in ‘your beautiful james blunt’.
there were a few snickers and murmurs of ‘aww’ but she held up her finger to wait. a kfc ad played. then, acoustic guitar. fade in on james blunt, alone on an iceberg, birds circling him in the rain. ‘my life is brilliant’ he says, taking off his raincoat ‘my life is pure’ he takes off his t-shirt ‘i saw an angel’ he stands around shirtless ‘of that i’m sure’ he sits down on the ice ‘she smiled at me’ he starts taking off his shoes ‘she was with another man’ he takes stuff out of his pockets ‘but i don’t lose no sleep’ he arranges them in a neat line ‘because i got another plan’ he walks to the edge of the iceberg ‘you’re beautiful!’ he jumps ‘you’re beautiful!’ he falls into the antarctic ocean ‘you’re beautiful, its true’ james blunt is swallowed by the waves.
there are some murmurs and gasps. i yell a loud what?! uncomfortable laughter. someone has left the room in tears. the lecturer looks up from tinkering with the 2nd monitor and sees the body of james blunt floating limply in the sea. she tracks the mouse back a little to check what happened and she slaps her laptop shut, turns her on her mic and says, ‘sorry. i am so sorry everyone. i thought this would be a nice song to play. i’m so sorry. but i guess this is why you should always pre-watch your videos the night before’ (mild laughter). i have learned the opposite lesson. now i always show my students videos that i haven’t watched before. it keeps me on my toes.