...and the winner is...

So I had a conversation last night after the Academy Awards - the person I was talking to ask me which was my favorite speech?  I said to them matter of factly, "Well it has been said yet..." 

There was silence on the other end of the phone. 

I continued, "Well the film hasn't been made yet (I did stifle the words, 'a very important picture', like Auntie Norma Desmond would say) and I haven't gone up there to accept the award..." 

Strange only one of us laughed - and it wasn't me...

Two true facts for those of you who aren't in the know - one I am a theatre arts person (COULD NOT TELL BY MY PERSONALITY RIGHT?) and two I went to the Academy Awards way back in the 90's when Cuba Gooding Jr. won for Jerry Maguire...  I made a promise to myself I would return and at least be nominated for something...  Granted I placed it only a few years later but hey if David Seidler, writing the King's Speech, at 73 can win an award - I got some time....

So I thought about it and I wondered if I was nominated and should I have won - considering all the things going on in my world... what would I say... 

"Wow!  This is amazing... incredible, wonderful... but there are somethings I would like to point out to you all...  Yes, everyone thanks the cast, crew and production teams and granted I am right there with you - with out all of you - this wouldn't be possible...  Thank You... 

But there are people out there who you all don't know that truly won this award tonight... Who are they you ask?  Well they are the people who have been my family and friends in what seems like forever... 

You have them don't you?  The people that you just click with, cry with, laugh with...  who strangely are more your family than what the definition is...  They show kindness, bawdiness and they are the funniest people around...  They can sit around a table and in minutes rally to a cause, dispel any rumor and gossip more rigorously they anyone you know...  You know them right?  Because I hope we all have them in our lives...  Mine break into teams...

There are "the muses", my rag tag bunch of beauties who give me inspiration daily, there are "the co-conspirators" whose mission while secret have never failed me and our loyalty and trust are a lesson for the ages, then there are "the ones" - those who I would go into the fire for...  but together they make an impressive array of mentors whom I learn from and treasure.


There are also, "those people" - the ones who doubted and wronged me.  Without you as well, this wouldn't be possible.  Your mistake was to make a judgement call too quickly...  and while you are on the periphery of my life - it is important to acknowledge your presence - and to remind people to rise up and above their critics and blaze trails those stunted people could never ever do. 

Of course I am thanking my long suffering family - putting up with me for all these years... and then to the two people who made this all possible, my mother and father - they prove to me daily that my mother should be made a saint and the nickname "The Riddler" is most apt for my Dad... "

And in true Parano style as the music swelled, I would trip as I walked off the stage...