I have not always been a total fan of the Oscars. However, I have found that in the last few years I have really gotten into watching the Oscars - as I am right now. I once had a good friend who just LOVED the Oscars and always watched them with her mom - I coud not get into it at the time, but I have become a recent convert to joining in the spectacle.
I find them to be public liturgy, and they are really an amazing presentation. What I find most inspiring about the Oscars is the "I want to thank the members of the Academy..." The reason is that I think that these offerings are drenched with emotion, and also exhibit that sensibility that we seem to see all too rarely: Thanksgiving.
All too often, the really wonderful ones seem to be cut off by that infernal music -- I know we can't have the Oscars go on all night, but couldn't we offer a few more minutes to gratitude, to thanksgiving?
Offering thanksgiving for all that we are, and all that we have is, and can be, prayer. What if we each thought through what our "Oscar Speech" would be? Who would we thank, how would we thank them, how emotional would we become? And then, I wonder if we all should thank those people, if we should publicly thank those who have meant so much to us.
When I offer youth services, sometimes we ask the kids to come up with the "Asking" (petition) prayers and the "Thanking" prayers, and the kids offer up the earthy, real, and deep prayers emerging from their lives -- and they offer up wonderful prayers of thankgsgiving.
I love hearing the words of thanksgiving at the Oscars, and I think we would all do well to actually "Thank the Academy, and ....." more often.
