Glory Is Awesome

Just wanted to pop in to share a quick story about watching the Oscars Sunday night. I had not intended to watch much of the telecast, just get past whatever opening musical number Neil Patrick Harris would perform in his debut as Oscar host. 

My daughter Miranda was watching with me which was unusual for her as she has never expressed any interest in this sort of thing before. But she's a big fan of Harris from his role as Barney on How I Met Your Mother so she wanted to see what he would do.  

But after Harris' big production number that opened the show, Miranda wanted to keep watching. Somehow this self-congratulatory spectacle had captured her attention. One of the things she thought was very cool (and so did I) was the over the top performance of Everything Is Awesome from The Lego Movie. The El family saw it in the theater last spring and it's theme song was stuck in our heads for a long time. 

So Miranda decided she wanted to see which song would win the Oscar. Other musical performances came and went, rather good performances, particularly Tim McGraw's very touching take on Glen Campbell's song from the documentary about Glen's descent into Alzheimer's. But my daughter and I were still pulling for Everything Is Awesome. 

Then came the performance of the final nominated song: Glory by John Legend and Common from the film Selma. We watched and listened in silence as John Legend's singing and Common's rap combined to form something quite powerful. Behind the two men was a set designed to look like the bridge that men and women crossed 50 years ago in a bid for freedom and equality. And across that bridge came men and women, perhaps only dozens but it looked like hundreds filling the stage. And their voices rang with the melodic sounds of a choir, a choir on a mission. 

And when the song was over, my daughter said, "That song has to win." I chided her a bit for abandoning Everything Is Awesome. Miranda responded that The Lego Movie song was a lot of fun. "But this," she said, shaking her head, "this is something else." 

And when the winner for Best Song from a Motion Picture was announced, everybody in the theater at the Oscars cheered; back in our home, Miranda and I actually clapped to the announcement. 

Glory had won.

And Glory...is awesome. 

Everybody, be good to one another. 

Dave-El 
I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You