The Oscars
I love movies but for me the Oscars are about recognition and love and saying thanks. "I want to thank the Academy ..." The Oscars are about overpowering emotions, but I always felt that the intensity comes not from being in a spotlight and not from getting ahead, but from the realization that saying thanks is important. YOU are important. Your work, your love, your appreciation are important.
Somehow they are validated by being in a spotlight, by holding to a shiny little idol, by winning.
But what about the other nominees? How about the 'losers' who prepared their little acceptance speeches and but did not win? Did they stop being thankful? Did they throw away their thank-you lists or kept them for the next competition?
My kids take a little long to shower. Not because they are neat freaks but because the glass door gets foggy, so they can scribble something like :"you're the best daddy ever I love you" and draw flowers and hearts and puppies and mummies and exclamation points and stuff. And they invite me in and they show me and they ask "did you like the way I made you look cute in the picture?" They are making sure the message got through. And they ask me to bend down and to close my eyes. And they exclaim: "It worked!!! Every time I kiss you you get happier!" - just making sure their love matters, their thanks are heard, their work is appreciated before the fog clears up.
I don't watch the Oscars any more. I watch my kids. I have a lot to learn from them.
Somehow they are validated by being in a spotlight, by holding to a shiny little idol, by winning.
But what about the other nominees? How about the 'losers' who prepared their little acceptance speeches and but did not win? Did they stop being thankful? Did they throw away their thank-you lists or kept them for the next competition?
My kids take a little long to shower. Not because they are neat freaks but because the glass door gets foggy, so they can scribble something like :"you're the best daddy ever I love you" and draw flowers and hearts and puppies and mummies and exclamation points and stuff. And they invite me in and they show me and they ask "did you like the way I made you look cute in the picture?" They are making sure the message got through. And they ask me to bend down and to close my eyes. And they exclaim: "It worked!!! Every time I kiss you you get happier!" - just making sure their love matters, their thanks are heard, their work is appreciated before the fog clears up.
I don't watch the Oscars any more. I watch my kids. I have a lot to learn from them.