Today is the day set aside to let go of all those things that make you feel icky -- you know, the destruction of the economy, the environment, our civil rights, Reason ... and the rise of fascism, the poverty, homelessness, intolerance and hate -- and submit yourself to the ministrations of a higher authority---

The Academy Awards parade of shows.

How ironic that on this day, ostensibly a day to pause and reflect upon Goodness and Faith (and we know what a perversion of that is happening in a lot of churches and mosques around the world today), we find just such reassurance in a television ritual where puff interviews and lacerating wardrobe commentary set the tone of the day. But we love it.

Is that cool or what?

When it comes down to it, this is a day to honor our storytellers. We are a species that understands life through stories. Religious tomes are storybooks. Reality television is story. We even see our current events through the lens of stories.

Hollywood films are hardly the high mark of storytelling any more. Once upon a time, they were great -- but that's another story. Now it seems that most of them aren't even well made any more. It's not really surprising, is it? Hollywood runs on a system of power built on fear, where the most inexperienced serve as the gatekeepers. (Who do you think is reading your screenplay? An executive? Or a 19 year old kid just moved from Kentucky with stripes on his socks and stars in his eyes?) It's a place where experience is not valued because it is so often equated with age -- and you sure don't know anything if you're old! (The exceptions: those who are already in.) It's a place where the actual producers are outsiders, while the decisions are made by bean counters who weigh movie products like widgets. (If you want to be a Hollywood executive, forget the MFA. Go get an MBA from Harvard. Oh, and make sure you have an inside connection.)

Yet Hollywood films are still the big ones. It's where the money is.

All of my life, it seems, part of the fun of the Oscars is rooting for or against this or that nominee. Or being outraged that something else was not even nominated. And seeing what kind of fashion offenses will be perpetrated by the stars.

It's a comfort zone. It all doesn't add up to much in our lives. But it really is a celebration of how we understand our lives. When we see a good movie, we're engaged emotionally and mentally, and for a little while we're not sitting there in our homes or the theatre or the jetliner, but are transported out of our own experience just for a while. And when it's good, when we return, everything has changed just a little. We have changed.

It's not Hollywood film that we celebrate today. It's the spirit of filmmaking -- storytelling. It's an honoring of how we understand our lives -- packed with all that silliness that helps us not take ourselves too seriously, just for a little while.

Bad movies. Bad dresses. Bad hair. Bad jokes. (Maybe better this year with Chris Rock.) Homilies and polemics, platitudes and gratitudes....

What a wonderful day.

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