YOUR MOTHER AND MINE

Image courtesy of CBS News

Last night, Sandra Bullock accepted the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in The Blind Side. Her speech was extremely touching, not only because of her authenticity through the shock of such a grand moment, her endearing humility and humor, and the overall beauty of watching someone's dream come true, but also because of her gratitude to her late mother and mothers everywhere. Truly, our mothers make us who we are, and any success we find in life belongs to them. I find it very poignant that the performance chosen by the Academy this year was one depicting not a murderous monster, a royal world leader, a tortured chanteuse, or any other character normally associated with layers of artistic intrigue. Sandra's character was neither famous nor exceptional. In fact, she was all the things normally scoffed by high-brow intellectuals-- she was a conservative, Christian, stay-at-home mom from Texas. But Leigh Ann Tuophy was a character of extraordinary love, and the strength of her maternal compassion deserved the same veneration of those who rule countries and sing songs. Though the deeds of the famous bring incalculable cultural value to the world, it is only because of the unsung mothers that such extraordinary feats can even be realized.

Watch Sandra's beautiful speech here.