Ryan Gosling is all of us when Moonlight was revealed as the true winner of Best Picture. #Oscars pic.twitter.com/wbReWJKW04

— Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) February 27, 2017

I see so much backlash and so many Late Night spoofs about the Oscars and its mammoth mishap this year.

And yet I believe the universe is always inviting us to see the bigger picture in all events.

The key is to pay attention, which is why I think this year’s Academy Awards were a great gift and something we could all benefit from—either consciously or unconsciously.

If you are like me, you do your best to see as many nominated movies as possible by Oscar night so that the long evening keeps you feeling engaged and included. Except for some emotional speeches and mildly entertaining interludes, this year seemed underwhelming overall.

Then, of course, came that rush of events during the last 10 minutes: Best Actor, Actress and Director all in one cumulative wave.

Not unlike past years, the Best Picture award is announced during overtime. Working on a time crunch galore, Warren Beatty hurriedly opens the envelope for Best Picture and takes a moment to scan the piece of paper in his hand. Unsure of what he sees, he hands it to his partner, Faye Dunaway, who simply reads what is in front of her: “La La Land ” for best picture!

Big applause, movie cast and crew rush the stage. It’s business as usual until non-celebrity people start clamoring from backstage to interrupt the festivities and thank you speeches to tell us that “La La Land” was, in fact, not the winner but rather “Moonlight”  was to get the golden statue this year. As if trying to calm our disbelief, a TV camera went so far as to take an up close shot of the winning envelope. It was surreal.

Mistakes happen, right? In fact, they probably happen much more regularly than not. My guess is that mistakes were happening all evening long, but went undetected. This mistake just happened to be a real doozy and on a world stage no less, but what may appear as a mistake can oftentimes be a blessing in disguise.

As chaos ensued and emotions ran high, the La La Land crowd simply stepped aside and allowed the cast of Moonlight to take center-stage. And, as Moonlight suddenly found itself in the spotlight, they too kept their cool and calmly accepted an award that, just moments ago, had gone to someone else.

Everyone on stage was respectful of feelings—and the enormity of what had just happened—and they seemed to just accept the moment for what it was, in all its beloved awkwardness.

What we witnessed here was nothing short of a miracle. No one tried to upstage or blame the other. No one made this moment into anything more than an unfortunate blunder. To me, this is the bigger picture of Oscar night 017: The generosity that occurred. The egos that were kept in check. The humility and good humor on both sides was amazing to see.

At a time when insensitivity and bull-dozing of feelings is the norm of the day, it was incredibly hopeful to see common decency on display in such a public forum.

To watch the winners of a hugely popular movie hand over the golden statue to a cast and crew of a much more subtle movie that was probably seen by significantly fewer people was truly admirable.

As Hollywood continues to get bashed for being elitist and out-of-touch, it was pretty clear that they haven’t lost touch with what it means to be human: to be people of integrity when it really matters. To step up during adverse moments and be kind and understanding, even when it means losing.

This is what I believe the universe is reminding us here: that it has our back and that we are not alone. That light is always hiding in the darkness, and that love is the binding force, no matter how much we go astray to untie it.

~

Author: Vera Snow

Image: Reddit/ Twitter

Editor: Khara-Jade Warren