Academy Awards for other people

I think the Academy Awards are great.

Acting is great. The movies are great. Even movie popcorn is great. I love it all. Truly.

My life is better because of great filmmaking.

Yet I also can’t help but think:

The Academy Awards are really just “The Best Person Pretending to be Another Person, Filmed Entirely Out of Order, With Lots and Lots of Second Chances to Get It Right, and Later Edited to Perfection.”

Acting is certainly a profession that demands skill, hard work, and talent, but still… we make a big deal out of something children also do quite well and have actually won Academy Awards before, defeating adults in the same category.

More importantly, I wish we’d provide equal fanfare for people who don’t spend their lives presenting to be other people:

Scientists, nurses, teachers, Little League coaches, veterinarians, Scoutmasters, firefighters, social workers, soup kitchen volunteers, and the like.