X Factor Spotlight: What LeRoy Bell Taught Us

I must admit that when LeRoy Bell was chosen by Nicole Scherzinger to advance through to the Top 17 live round (it was still the Top 16 at that point) I was a bit surprised. I had thought that perhaps James Kenney or Christa Collins might get the nod. It was one of the two strongest categories in the entire competition and its depth was matched or surpassed only by Simon Cowell's girls. People liked LeRoy, both personally and vocally, and his charismatic gravitas translated into a smooth appeal to people of all ages and life stages. It was just unclear whether Nicole Scherzinger would feel the same way, especially given the mammoth task she had at hand in narrowing down such an incredible talent pool to just four finalists. I often wondered during that part of the process if LeRoy himself had his doubts.

And I guess that's the whole point of his journey. Bell's shockingly youthful physical appearance served as a metaphor for the old proverbial "it's never too late" mentality and served as an educational reminder, or certainly as a public service infomercial for X Factor viewers that you have to use every moment you have for making the best out of, well, every moment you have. Bell was practical from the beginning; hardly pretending that he was going to indefinitely soldier on if no opportunities were presented to him by the end of his time on the show.

And that's the easy part. That's the obvious part. And yet there was a different feel in the air when they aired the results show Thursday Night when it was starting to become more and more apparent that at least the reality TV portion of his journey was reaching it's conclusion. It's unclear what his post-show future holds but even though I always knew I would write about LeRoy whether while still on the show or following his departure, it became clear to me when I sat down to dispense my thoughts what direction I needed to take my processed thoughts on him with.

LeRoy Bell's time on The X Factor should not be measured just by his age and where he ultimately placed. It shouldn't be measured strictly by the "never give up" or "never say die" nature of his time on the show. I'm not interested in sorting through the lineup of usual suspects when it comes to a figuratively criminal use of cliches. No, that is an oversimplification and I refuse to cop-out simply by just re-treading the obvious.

What has my attention is the hybrid of practicality, persistence, clearly defined goals and the discipline to stay on point to reach them, and the clairvoyant application of a precise timeline in which to accomplish what he set out to do. It's unsurprising how programmed we've become with these reality shows when it comes to showcasing joke contestants without a prayer in the world of making it, as well as other equally misguided pretenders who put all their eggs in one basket. It's partly self-delusion, it's partly arrogance, and it's entirely the stubborn reluctance of those who have age on their side but little or nothing else to fall back on, and then they get exposed nationally for the comical frauds they are. And I don't think it's particularly nice to do it but I hypocritically find myself laughing along too in the moment although I always regret doing so later because my conscious always kicks back in.

And what has my attention is that LeRoy Bell has essentially had the last laugh. He might not be 16, 21, 25, or even 28 anymore but what really makes Bell so fascinating and unique is that what he really managed to do was not be held back by the limitations of youth; he used his maturity and vastly underreported show business experience to not be bogged down by either extremes. He turned it into a strength. There is no arrogance with him. In fact, there is a very grounded but downplayed humility. In other words, he didn't rely on his experience and maturity, masking it as false humility, and while he was actually criticized by many in the media for being strangely nervous given his age, experience, and professional background, I certainly never picked up on that vibe. They misread any nervousness that might have been present because for all his cool and calmness, he still recognized his own show business mortality in those moments in which critics and viewers alike questioned his nerves. It was the empathetically humanizing vulnerability of that reality that brought us the intimate close up of him as both a person and an artist.

And really, the answer to his critics in that scenario is his own acknowledgment of the limitations of time and the humanizing antidote to the presumption that he should just be okay because of his age is the realization that it was because of his age that he knew that he had no margin for error. Bell is 60 years old and while he hardly looks like a grizzled veteran physically, he also carried with him the baggage of now or never and for anyone, judge, critic, or viewer alike, to be back seat driving over that is sadly off point in the most unflattering way possible in terms of what the ignorant nature of that assumption means. Or in Bell's case, the damaging application of assumption in general.

L.A. Reid might have called him boring but for someone who is just a few years younger than Bell, Reid is shockingly off the mark. Why does Bell have to run around the stage acting like someone a third of his age? Why does he have to pretend that he's in it for the women and bling? Why does he have to pretend at all? LeRoy Bell showed us that it's okay to not have a midlife crisis. It's okay to be comfortable in your own skin. And in a society that celebrates the egotistically individualistic nature of our youth driven culture, as demonstrated by the noticeably highlighted immaturity of Astro last week, it's okay to be unapologetic when you justifiably have nothing to be sorry for.

We've lost sight of modesty. We've lost sight of what all things in moderation is and what it means. We got a healthy dose of a much needed medicine over the course of the past three months and that medicine was named LeRoy Bell. We could all use a prescription. What LeRoy Bell taught us was about what we need to not tell ourselves to excuse ourselves of any rational and adult behavior and decision making but rather how to harness our dreams and aspirations while not prolonging the inevitably of normal adulthood should some dreams of ours remain permanently out of reach. Additionally, he taught us how to balance both not at the expense of our responsibilities and obligations, both to ourselves and to others, and to know when to reign in our most burning desires without sacrificing passionate ambition that could lead to eternal regret if not acted upon.

And perhaps it still does ultimately come back to the ageist paradigm of odds defying probabilities and possibilities, but at the end of the day what LeRoy Bell taught us is not just what all this means and how to balance it all appropriately, but also how to handle it and impart it into others. And he's done that not with sermonizing recollections of what he once was and how and where he lost it all before gaining it back, or by being flashy, but rather just by being himself and staying within those parameters. He knows those who snicker at his nerves and pass sanctimonious judgments are the ones to be pitied for he has already been there and he is no longer burdened by confines and ruthlessly peer induced stone throwing because he has a perspective that while not flashy or made up of the stuff of blaring sirens and strobe lights, instead comes from a mother who taught him well and inspired him to never give up, but he still carries himself with the weight of the world without feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders. And when you understand that about LeRoy Bell, you understand that his mama raised no fool. What you'll also understand is that she raised someone who always keeps an even keel and a sadly outdated dignified grace about himself as demonstrated in the classy manner in which he conducts himself, and perhaps the problem is not that it might strike some as boring but that the rest of us don't find that excitedly refreshing enough. It's ironic too; it's because he is older and at peace with himself, the world, and his ambition that he has it all figured out. No wonder why he looks and feels so young. He has all the time in the world. Just don't be fooled by it. He'll never act like he does. After all, he's too busy having his whole life ahead of him, particularly at an age in which the very same snickering masses say it's not allowed, and there sure as hell is nothing boring about that at all.

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