Post-Oscar Courage

Watching the Oscars--an event slightly more important to me than Christmas--always seems like a glimpse at the future fruits of my labors. And thus is very exciting.

This is no doubt a massive delusion. But such things are useful.

And there is a real motivating, booster-rocket push from seeing all those beautifully turned-out folks winning and celebrating.

Every one of those people has fought a tough fight to get where they are. Some reminders that turned up last night on stage or on the red carpet:

*Reese Witherspoon going to auditions and being told: "you're too short, you're too this, you're too that, please don't come back."

*Ben Affleck and Matt Damon working for five years on their breakthrough script Good Will Hunting

*Forrest Whittaker coming from a gang-world neighborhood of south central L.A., without the advantage of traditional leading-man looks

And the final dollop of inspiration: the pair who made the movie Once in three weeks with two little cameras and $100,000, then took home an Oscar last night, one of them exhorting the world to "make art! make art!"

So I start again this Monday morning enlivened.


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