And The Oscar Goes To...

Do you watch the Academy Awards show each year? Fewer and fewer people are.

Beyond proving the point that being really funny is really hard and quite often results in uncomfortable failure (and that from professional comedians, with writers!), what’s the point?

It’s just easier now to watch the specific highlights we’re interested in the next day on YouTube and Instagram.

But I still remember one phrase I heard years ago during the Academy Awards show. It was uttered by one of those people we’ve never heard of who won an award for Sound.

He talked about “…stories you see with your ears.”

That is such a lovely phrase.

A reminder that what you are privileged to do every day is tell stories that move your listeners, stories so vivid and real they see them with their ears.

That's your job.

You get paid to do this.

You use your words to brush aside tears in times of grief, to tickle their funny bones and make them smile and forget, even if only for a few minutes, the stress of their lives; to hold them close, literally embrace them in times of national anxiety.

It's your voice that soothes the angry. Your smile that offers hope. Your silence that draws them ever closer.

So, the Oscar goes to those of you courageous enough to try to make this connection every day.

Make us listen.

Make us open our hearts to you.

Make us see you with our ears.