Keller @ Large: Let's End Our Addiction To Awards
BOSTON (CBS) - Let's face it, we are an award-obsessed society.
On the national level, there are awards for everything, close to 50 award shows for the TV and movie industries alone, along with countless sports awards. Add in a regional award culture that runs the gamut from non-profit groups honoring their person of the year to the "trophies for everyone" culture of schools and youth sports, and you have a situation where you really have to work hard not to win an award.
No doubt, most if not all of these award recipients are deserving. But somehow it was really refreshing to learn that repeated attempts by the fine folks who give out perhaps the world's best-known awards, the Nobel Prizes, have so far failed to reach the recipient of their award for literature, Bob Dylan.
He performed live in Las Vegas the night he won the Nobel, but he didn't mention the honor. And the Nobel committee is bracing for the possibility that Dylan won't even show up to accept his award when they have their big event in December.
That would be consistent with Dylan's lifelong anti-hero attitude. And maybe it will prompt some of us to rethink our addiction to this type of recognition.
Think of the extraordinary things you do in your life, the extra effort you make to help a friend or neighbor, the voluntary support you give to your community, the things you help make or build that benefit others.
Most likely, the only award you expect is a thank you, and the good feelings that come with doing the right thing.
That's more like it.
And I hope it turns out that Bob Dylan would just as soon let his music stand on its own merit, as it should, Nobel or no Nobel.