The season of Lent began last Wednesday, and I had no idea what to give up. I've decided to attempt being more positive. My schedule has been a total thrash the past few months, and it's made me too quick to take the low, bad-attitude road.
Now that I've said that, a few not-so-positive thoughts have been swimming in my head lately, and I really just need to get them out.
1. The Oscars are not necessarily the place to raise awareness, but sometimes it happens to happen there. Just because the thing you wanted awareness raised for didn't get "recognized" (though it's already pretty damn amazing to even be nominated...but you're right, winning is the only answer) doesn't mean it isn't something that was not worthy of it, or that something else wasn't also worthy of getting recognized. Try putting yourself in the shoes of the people who were recognized, and just have some empathetic happiness for them.
I would also guess that many of the people who are making the comments I'm referencing likely have only seen the movie they wanted to win. While this certainly isn't an isolated case, I just feel like we shouldn't really criticize until we know what it is we're criticizing (and not just something that isn't what we saw and liked already). It would also be helpful to understand the historical and cultural contexts (when they apply, and Lord knows they did for most of the nominations this year) that these films are coming from. Again, they all were deserving of recognition, and I believe that by being nominated they did get at least a portion of that.
(One optimistic Oscar comment: I sure hope that more young people are aware of the Sound of Music is! Loved that tribute, loved Lady Gaga's performance, loved Julie Andrews' reaction. And of course, love that classic musical.)
2. People driving 10+ miles over the speed limit who do things like passing in the merging lane just drive me crazy. I don't understand how their life and the lives of the people in the other cars don't mean enough to them to just have some patience. Again, if we could imagine what we would feel like if someone did whatever we're thinking about doing back to us, it might make us think twice about it.
That is all for my rant. I have already noticed a huge boost in energy and attitude from just trying to be more positive, but these things have been weighing on me as I've driven to and from Park & Rides and watched peoples' reactions on Facebook to the Oscars. Let's try to empathize and think twice.
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