"You Gotta Get Up"

On Sunday I decided to tape the Oscars so I wouldn't have to endure all the commercials and those awards that, while deserved, are a little boring to sit through. I'm only interested in a few: best actor and actress, best supporting actor and actress, best director, best picture. Of course, being something of a technological idiot, I didn't consider that the show might run long, meaning I missed most of the awards I was hoping to see.

Thank goodness for the Internet. Tonight I watched Ben Affleck's acceptance speech on youtube, and he said something that I've believed all my life. In case you missed it, here's a portion of what he said:

I was here 15 years ago or something and I had no idea what I was doing. I stood out here in front of you all and was really just a kid. I went out and I never thought I would be back here. And I am, because of so many of you who are here tonight, because of this Academy, because of so many wonderful people who extended themselves to me when they had nothing to benefit from it in Hollywood...I want to thank them for what they taught me, which is that you have to work harder than you think you possibly can. You can't hold grudges. It's hard but you can't hold grudges. And it doesn't matter how you get knocked down in life because that's going to happen. All that matters is you gotta get up.

Mr. Affleck, you are so right. We will fall down, and sometimes people will knock us down, either accidentally or with intent. No matter who we are, we need to work as hard as we can, hard enough to hurt, because we won't get anywhere if we don't And by not getting anywhere I'm not talking about making money; I'm talking about changing people's lives, and changing the life of the communities in which we live, whether it's Tinseltown or Main Street. We will fall down. But the only thing that matters, in the end, is that we let those who knocked us down -- or tried to -- know that we will get back up to fight another day.