And The Award Goes To...

Last night, as many of us know, the Golden Globe Awards aired on NBC. I can't tell you how many comments I have seen in the last 24 hours stating how no one cares about Hollywood celebrities patting themselves on their backs and so on and so forth.

And while I will absolutely admit that these awards shows have been and are problematic regarding the elitism on display, lack of diversity, and overall pretentiousness of the ceremonies; the awards themselves are not pointless and are actually a good thing.

In sports, we cheer on our favorite teams to win championships, and serious students long to see an A+ on a paper or test. For a writer/director/actor/artist/musician, this is no different. Fans of these people long to see their favorite performers or artists/writers acknowledged for their hard work and portrayals of characters, movies, books, etc. As an author/illustrator, I can absolutely attest to the fact that I would be so very honored to win an award for a story that I've created.

I think the problem people have with these award shows is, as I stated before, there's elitism attached to it all. A problematic message saying, "We are what you should strive to be and are more important than you." Now I don't think many people accepting these awards actually think that way, but I'm sure some do. Hollywood has earned a terrible reputation for chewing people up, abusing them, and spitting them back out. It's made up of executives who take advantage of people and feed into the greed and power-hungry nature of the world, making it an overall worse place to be. So I think THAT'S what people are lashing out at more than anything. Even Brendan Fraser who was nominated for his performance in The Whale boycotted the ceremony last night due to previous abuse he had experienced which got him black listed for a couple of decades.

All these things are absolutely valid and understandable. And maybe because of these things, the award shows shouldn't be televised anymore, or at least until Hollywood can (if they ever do) clean up their act. But the awards themselves shouldn't go away. Awards show you people who have come so far and have overcome so much to get where they are in their craft.

A perfect example is last night's winner for Best Supporting Actor, Ke Huy Quan. Many of us know him from his roles in The Goonies or Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom. He was a very successful child star. But last night he expressed that for 30 years he thought he had peaked in his childhood (at least regarding his acting career that he loves so much) until 2 guys thought of him and cast him in the role that won him the Golden Globe last night. His speech was so inspiring to me. As an author/illustrator, it motivated me not to give up. It taught me that even after a 30-year dry spell, you can still make your dreams come true. I was and am so happy for him and the journey he has been on.

That's why these awards are so important. Stories like Quan's. They inspire others to create something great to then inspire more people to do the same or change their perspectives on life. The awards are a recognition of a job well done. If we can get past the elitist politics and scandalous slaps and get back to what awards are supposed to be about, then maybe, just maybe people will start appreciating them again and they can inspire more folks to get out there and chase their dreams, lighting up a dark world in the process.