No awards, but still a big winner

By: centraljersey.com
And the winner was – NOT Pam Hersh.
The big news last week was that I won no awards, in spite of the fact that awards and honors (and all the thank yous) had so dominated my environment. The effect on me was an oxymoronic uplifting depression, i.e., I was inspired by the accomplishments of the extraordinary honorees, but, in the words of a friend, I "felt like a slug," when comparing my accomplishments with those of the award winners.
It all started Sunday, when I got an invite to attend an Oscar party at the home of Princeton Township resident Ginny Mason, who was celebrating her 32nd year of celebrating the Academy Awards Ceremony with a Girls-Night-Out-at-the-Oscar-Awards Party.
Because of grandbabe babysitting obligations, I was unable to attend, but it occurred to me that I did not deserve an invite to such an august event. Unlike longtime Princeton resident Ginny and most of her guests, I had seen none of the nominated films – not even The King’s Speech which was at the Garden Theater for eight weeks.
Former Princeton Township Mayor Phyllis Marchand, an attendee at the Girls’-Night-Out event for the past 20 years, was fairly typical of the other invitees in that she is a compulsive movie-goer. I know this because at least twice a week over the past year I have gotten a phone call from Phyllis asking me if I wanted to go to the movies with her. My inability to go or her husband’s inability to go or any one of several friends’ inability to go never thwarted Phyllis from going. Many times she sat in empty theaters late at night – in an effort to see every movie with potential of winning an award. Phyllis said that even though I could contribute nothing about the movies at the Oscar party, my role could be that of Joan Rivers as fashion commentator. But as someone who still confuses Charlie Sheehan with Alec Baldwin, I did not deserve even the honor of participating in the party.
On Monday, I learned that my friend Princeton Professor Stanley N. Katz, a well-known scholar of American legal history and educational institutions, was awarded the National Humanities Medal for 2010. The ceremony took place not at the Carousel on Nassau Street where I often have breakfast with Stan and another friend to discuss such intellectual topics as the Chicago Cubs, but at the White House with President and Mrs. Obama.
The medal honors those whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the humanities and provided greater access to resources in the humanities. Renowned author and Princeton Professor Joyce Carol Oates also was a recipient.
At this same ceremony, the 2010 National Medals of Arts were awarded to such familiar names as Van Cliburn, Harper Lee, Quincy Jones, Sonny Rollins and Meryl Streep. At least, I know who these people are, have read their books, listened to their music and even seen movies starring Ms. Streep.
All this still fails to qualify me for much of anything in this awards arena. After news about the presidential honor came word of a Congressional honor. Congressman Rush Holt (12th District) whom I have known for many years even prior to his becoming The Honorable Rush Holt, won the Jeopardy with Watson contest. Rep. Holt, formerly the associate director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, thus an actual rocket scientist as his supporters like to tout on bumper stickers, defeated the IBM supercomputer Watson in a round of Jeopardy in Washington, D.C.. Congressman Holt, who was a five time Jeopardy winner more than 30 years ago, tweeted about the experience.
More important, said Rep. Holt, than actually winning (Holt $8,600, Watson, $6,200), "I was proud to join IBM and other members of Congress to highlight the importance of technology. It was fun to out-do Watson in the first round, but this was not just about fun and games. Science and math education and research and development are vital to our nation so we can out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world."
I did not tweet, but rather talked to Congressman Holt about his honor at yet another awards event on Thursday evening – the YWCA 28th Annual Tribute to Women Awards. The 10 Princeton area women honored for their significant contributions to their professions and communities each gave acceptance speeches so riveting that I never dozed or checked my e-mail. The awardees’ passionate commitment to making their world a better place for others was electrifying. The challenges that some of the winners had to overcome to get where they are today brought tears to the eyes of the friends and families in the audience.
The mantra was "passion with a purpose." These women were the personification of the answer to a question I asked Rep. Holt. I wanted to know whether Rep. Holt worried about Watson’s offspring usurping the decision-making abilities of humans. Computers are a tool to our decision-making. No bank of parallel processors, said the congressman, could ever have the insight and intuition and the passion and compassion necessary to make the judgments needed to solve society’s most confounding issues.
By the end of the evening, I – as the biggest loser in all of the awards ceremonies – got over my sluggy feelings and considered myself as the biggest winner. I had the honor of interacting with people who were using their pasts to become change agents in our future. So maybe one of the brilliant people with whom I interacted last week can tell me whether the poor slug describes his/her feelings of inadequacy as "feeling like a human."
Pam Hersh writes Loose Ends every other week in The Princeton Packet.