Awards

Last night I watched the Academy Awards.


I sort feel like the American Indian chief who attended church for the first time. At the conclusion of the service, someone asked him what he thought. Simple..."Big wind...lotta dust...no rain."


Now I am no movie critic or cinematographical afficionado, but I do know a good movie when I see one. Last nights award ceremony left something to be desired. It may be because it is the first time I have ever watched the Academy Awards from beginning to end.


Allow me a couple of observations...

King's Speech took home their share of honors

Melissa Leo's speech had to be 'bleeped"

Social Network did well

The Fighter fought its way to several honors

Celine Dion paid tribute to those who had the opportunity to see their life on the big screen on the other side

Inception won, but I am not sure if the award was real or if it was part of a dream

All of the recipients said in one way or another..."thanks Mom and thanks to the academy."

Billy Crystal and Bob Hope both showed up.

However the highlight of the night was a a brief tribute of Lena Horne by Halle Berry. Pictures of the film star rolled behind Berry as she shared a few short words. 

"It's not the load that breaks you down, 

it's how you carry it."

The Academy Awards felt like attending a conference and sitting through lots of presentations that were mediocre and then finally hearing the one "take away" comment that has the power to transform your thinking and catapult you forward. Lena Horne's comment did that for me.

It reminded me that everyone including Academy award winners, those not selected, and you and I carry a load of some kind. There is something that wears us down. The temptation is to focus on the load and not give attention to how we carry it. 

Suffering is an interesting thing...there is no valor in suffering if we have to announce it to everyone. There is the subtle temptation to think we are the only one who has ever carried a heavy load. Horne reminds us that "how we carry" our suffering may be as important or more important than the suffering itself.

I did not have high expectations of the show, but I was looking forward to the PS22 School kids performance. I thought it would be somewhere toward the middle of the show, but sure enough it was the very last performance on the nearly four hour show. It was worth the wait.

It seemed like the perfect illustration of what Lena Horne tried to say. I am sure that adversity, difficulty and challenges could have easily derailed the dream that the kids from PS22 had of performing on the large stage. They made it.

Shutting off the TV, the music from "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" continued to play in my head. In the words of Bob Hope, "thanks for the memories."