Why I Watch "The Kennedy Center Honors" Every Year

1. To learn about awesome people I've never heard of before (Grace Bumbry)
2. To remind myself, in case I'd forgotten, just how awesome other people are (Mel Brooks, Dave Brubeck)
3. To learn that people I was sort of neither-here-nor-there on are also pretty awesome (Robert De Niro, Bruce Springsteen)
   
4. To watch the honorees' reactions
5. To watch famous audience members' reactions
   
6. To watch the President and First Lady's reactions (the Obamas seemed to unselfconsciously enjoy themselves, and last year, it kind of tickled me to see President Bush singing along to George Jones songs)
7. To hear people like Jon Stewart deliver lines like, "But I am from New Jersey. And so I can tell you what I believe. And what I believe is this: I believe that Bob Dylan and James Brown had a baby" (at which point the President of the United States of America laughed and gave a kind of low five/handshake across his wife to Bruce Springsteen)
   
8. To laugh
9. To cry
10. And sometimes, if I'm lucky, to watch some excellent dancing