The Oddies – A Celebration Of Mental Illness Achievement

It’s been well over 20 years since I last watched the Oscars and I must confess that not watching them this year was particularly enjoyable. My slow ascent out of the damp crypt known as mental illness has instilled a palpable fear of association with the certifiably insane; I know better than most that crazy is contagious.

As a policy I avoid contact with the pathologically angry, the insecure so brittle they might be shattered by a sneer, fear-driven treacherous backstabbers who would sooner eat shattered glass than speak the truth, and reality TV personalities. I avoid them because I don’t want to catch what they have.

For reasons too quotidian to contemplate, much less relate for your examination, I am particularly revolted by that hideous cul de sac of mental illness referred to by the charmingly evocative term; narcissism. Always paired in my mind with another loathsome attribute, entitlement, narcissism is a mindset of self-absorption which consumes energy like a black hole swimming in space; a veritable donut of negativity. Entitlement, by contrast, can best be categorized as the belief one has hit a triple after being born on third base.

Now, I love movies and I freely admit that, for the time being, actors are necessary for their production. I do not wish to suggest that actors are merely well coiffed, vapid receptacles into which ideas, words, and faux emotions are poured. Neither do I wish to suggest that actors receive a disproportionate amount of recognition for their part in the movie making process considering they neither fund them, write them, direct them, or even paint the props for them; as near as I can tell they walk around in them.

But I do wish to suggest that an opulent ceremony of self-congratulation for an industry already drowning in hubris, grandiosity, self-absorption and pathological delusions of accomplishment and importance is the next to last thing we need on earth. (FYI, the very last thing on earth we need is a Bee Gees reunion.)

Instead of taking time out to honor the pasty prima donnas who bathe in adulation already, how about honoring some hard working, challenged individuals who daily rise and meet the dawn with a brave little smile, a song in their heart, a spring in their step, and a scrip clutched in their mitt? I am speaking, of course, about the mentally ill. Introducing the Oddies.

Here are just a few of the categories that might receive recognition.

Best Hysterical Drama

Best Animated Short Scene With An Authority Figure

Best Side Effects

Best Unsound Track

Best Original Screamplay

Should be an exciting evening!