This is Miley Cyrus week. If Twitter trending didn't tell me that I would know regardless because this singer/actor has been everywhere, promoting her film and helping out on American Idol. And she's been doing a good job.

As an aside and before I go on, I have to admit that at first blush I wasn't thrilled with Miley Cyrus.

I guess the reason is that it's hard to watch a young woman grow up before your eyes, making choices that you aren't sure are the best ones. This is particularly  difficult if you were once a young women yourself, doing things you realize later were really, really stupid (at least in my case).

Then, suddenly, you get it. And it seems that Miley, at a very worldly 17, gets it in a number of ways.She proved that she's a valuable teacher at American Idol this week when mentoring the Idol wannabes, giving each candidate pointers that really did improve each performance. She wasn't tough but she wasn't a softie either. She was blunt but not harsh. And she had great ideas, some of them quite simple to change which the contestants took to heart and which they worked to negotiate before their live performance yesterday.

Then tonight Miley Cyrus herself sang on live TV, taking When I Look at You from her movie The Last Song to the American Idol stage.

Afterwards, during a chat with Ryan Seacrest, Miley Cyrus was very articulate. She described how she would feel if she were being judged right after singing her heart out for the audience, and she admitted she would find that hard to do.

When talking about the harsh comments from the judges, Miley said that it was a little rough out there but that this would only make these talents even better. She called it "tough love".

And it is, but sometimes it's so heartbreaking I wonder if it's worth it.

What is worth it is to admire Miley Cyrus for her moxie and for her intuition. I think she is a fine musician. What do you think?