Hello everyone! It’s the last week of the second month of 2020. Do you still remember your New Year resolutions? (Just kidding! We are sure you are working towards achieving your resolutions day and night!)
Therefore, to end the month of February on a high note and say Hello to March with a new, fresh breath, we thought of bringing to your attention the highlight of this month which is surely the winning list of Oscar, (besides Parasite gives false hope for Asian Art-house Cinema), Joaquin Phoenix’s white saviour speech as the Best Actor (Joker) award can be considered as the silver lining in the dark cloud of the festival.
Although Joker wasn’t in my favourite movie list last year, as we all assumed, Joaquin Phoenix’s award worthy, extraordinary performance grabbed the limelight of the Oscar by winning the Best Actor award at the festival. In his winning speech, what he had to say to his audience was quite thoughtful as he emphasised a message of unity, gender inequality, racism and animal rights.
“We’re talking about the fight against the belief that one nation, one people, one race, one gender or one species has the right to dominate, control and use and exploit another with impunity,” he said.
He also said he hopes others are granted what he has been offered previously- a chance to be better.
“I’ve been a scoundrel in my life. I’ve been selfish. I’ve been cruel at times, hard to work with, and I’m grateful that so many of you in this room have given me a second chance,” he said. What a humble man he was, to be truthful and accept his own flaws in his moment in the limelight, not so easy!
A second chance is sometimes a miracle in disguise. If life presents you with the same situation twice, it is giving you a chance to do things differently or better or to recreate the perfect setting you always wished for.
How many relationships and friendships were restored because the second time around things were different and made more sense? How many milestones have you achieved at work when your subordinates gave you a second chance to do things right after a major flop? How many songs or films have you hated at first but ended up loving after listening and watching them a couple of times?
It is quite an irony of life that we think the first time is the only time, the first time is the best and the most important time. Sometimes we’re so obsessed with getting things right from the very first time that we often give up on things and sometimes ourselves too easily when things don’t work out in the first try. We don’t even give ourselves a second chance.
Therefore, in his winning speech, Joaquin Phoenix opens up another universe that we can discover by giving us and others a second chance. Call it coincidence, destiny or déjà vu, life is always presenting us with second chances but it’s what we do with these chances that count.
Goodbye February, Hello March!
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