I fully intended to give your Part II of the previous blog today. It’s called “What are You doing October 21st?” sung to the tune of “What Are You Doing New Years?” but I have decided to let that blog wait for another day.
You see I watched the final Oprah show. The Farewell.
First off, I really like the lady. I admire the empire she has created and for doing a TV show for 25 years that has ultimately spun off into her own Television Network here in Canada.
I’m just not a daily fan of her show. I tuned in to the final show because I am a sucker for emotion played out “live” on stage. I wanted to see how a powerful woman- like Miss Winfrey, would say goodbye to the millions of viewers who helped to built her empire. I didn’t see the big goodbye played out a week ago in that huge arena. I haven’t seen a picture, much less a video of the performance.
Performance you say?
Yes.
Performance.
That’s exactly what it was both last week and today- The Final Farewell.
She is an actress after all.
She’s a star.
Bette Davis would have done the exact same thing- if she had of had her own show.
What Oprah did and said was extremely heartfelt, only it was scripted and played to a hand-picked audience just the same.
Am I faulting her for that?
What?
Me with only 2 dollars and ninety-five cents in the bank and a fledging radio station and website?
Not on your life!
I envy her the power of the words she spoke.
I envy her, her life.
Her position.
Her money.
After all that’s what it’s really about- isn’t it?
She’s comfortable.
She can pay the bills. That’s what we all want and try to do on a daily basis.
Just once I wanted her to jump up and down and say-
“Heeh Hah. I am rich, rich, rich. I love it. I love being rich.Thank You!!”
She can effectively make us all sob our hearts out as she says goodbye…
Yes. That’s right. I teared up too.
She looked so sweet in pink. I am sure it was a tough show to get through.
Like a funeral- only a happy kind of sad.
So she makes us feel all fuzzy.
She even mentioned – The Gays!
Bye Oprah ~sob~.
Goodbye lovely Oprah ~sob~
How will we get through our days without you?
Dunno.
 |
| Oprah- Pretty in Pink (Ho/Reuters Photo) |
She told you how to do it. Weren’t you listening?
She said- It’s your life. Get out there and do it and live it.
Okay.
Maybe you don’t have the money she does and maybe you can’t do something on such a grand scale but if you want to be a TV host for example, approach the local cable outlet and do a show. You could host a show on Swisssh Radio. I always say speaking on Swisssh Radio beats opening a window and yelling up the street. Much more civilized.
Oprah said you have the power to do it all.
Start a club.
Write a show and perform it.
Write a book and sell it.
Maybe Jesus didn’t come to earth on Saturday because he wanted to see what Oprah had to say first. Now he’s been upstaged. Don’t expect him for a good while.
What would I have learned from Oprah if I had of been a regular viewer?
I think to put my name on everything!
Wait a minute. I 've been doing that. Just look at the top of this website-
"Rob Reid's Swisssh!"
Enough said.
So, the audience was profoundly sad because Oprah was leaving.
Did you expect less?
I’ll bet almost everyone watching shed a tear or two when she walked away, head and hands held high.
It was an Oprah Revival Meeting.
She’s like Lazrus. She’ll rise again and be there to give away cars and books and pies.
By the way, when she was leaving, didn’t she seem kind of cool with Stedman- her man-friend, after he hugged her? Didn’t she just kind of squeeze away from him.
“Sorry Sted…I have hands to shake and accolades to get. See you at brunch. Oh and walk the dog will you?”
A final question.
Just where in the hell does everybody think she’s going?
She has her own bloody network for Goodness sake. She doesn’t need the Oprah Show.
(oops….that green-eyed monster shows its ugly face again!)
She has a Magazine named after her.
She doesn’t need the Oprah Show.
She produces Broadway Shows.
She doesn’t need the Oprah Show.
She can have a new show any time she likes.
She doesn’t need the Oprah Show.
She could sit by a pool in Beverly Hills every day for the rest of her life and ruminate.
She doesn’t need the Oprah Show.
She could get a facial and massage every day of every week.
She doesn’t need the Oprah Show.
Most of what she said was true and insightful.
Then she used her powerful position to preach.
There is a God says Oprah. It took her five minutes but that’s what she meant. I’m paraphrasing here but she said something like- He’s been with me every day of my life and he picked me for glory.
That bit didn’t sit well with me.
Listen to the small voice she said and if you don’t, it will get bigger. I believe she could have said- I believe in God- and left it at that but she started to preach. It believe it could have been her second calling.
I’ll bet you that thousands of women will attend church this Sunday just because Oprah told them what she believed and that- in a sense, God helped her become rich and powerful.
Oprah and I have some things in common.
She was born in Mississippi, as a black woman. A two fold minority-
Black and a woman. She had to move to the big city to be who she was meant to be.
Me, I was born here in Orillia.
Gay and…well, let’s just leave it at being Gay.
That’s been hard enough.
Of course, I too had to move to the big city just to be me.
I’m not black but I tan very well.
I’d be on that “God-fearing turnip cart” tomorrow if I thought it would make me rich and famous and stir people’s thoughts and minds.
I am shallow.
I agree.
I’ve said that in public. In my one man show a few years ago. It’s not secret. I have to be reasonable.
Now, it’s not God who helped the Big “O”.
She did it all by herself.
I can see it in her eyes.
She’s a special person.
Have you ever really looked at Oprah’s eyes?
They say it all. In those eyes is the power, the drive, the paying it forward part of her life she so vehemently believes in…it’s just not God.
It’s all Oprah.
She struggled.
She stayed the course.
She made the decisions.
The “voice” she heard is indeed the voice we all hear. That sometimes annoying little voice that’s always there- always in our heads. If you haven’t heard it, you simply aren’t set up for listening.
I hear it.
I hear the words.
The direction.
I know it’s an important voice from another “plane of existence” but it’s not the omnipresent God of the universe like she says it is.
You know what?
However, if it helps get you through the hours.
The days.
The years.
I am all for it.
I can’t argue with that at all.
Sometimes my voice tells me to do things I don’t want to do.
Yes, I can ignore it but most times I listen. Sometimes it encourages me to say “certain” things to other people. Sometimes I do- especially when it shouts at me.
Of the entire final hour I watched, the “God/Jesus” stuff was a bit much.
I suggest that a lady as smart as Oprah, should know that the voice within her is like a “Guardian Angel”. Someone who doesn’t necessarily pull her strings but rather someone who suggests what she could- perhaps do, in a given situation. That “voice” is there for each and every one of us. Sometimes we are standing at the checkouts at Wal*Mart and it speaks to us. It tells us to look over there and we see a familiar face.
It reminds us.
It steadies us.
It watches out for us by alerting us to the dangers ahead. It might even recite our PIN number to us in advance of paying for our merchandise. It’s different for each and every one of us but it doesn’t require public affirmation. It requires an open mind and nothing more.
I would suggest that you not think it is God but if you really, really need to call it something listen for its name. Ask it. It will tell you. If you are hoping beyond hope that the voice answers “I’m God” when you request a name, then that’s what you’ll hear.
Open your mind.
Just a little more. A little further past farther.
I listened more than 50 years ago and I have it.
As the song says- Don’t cry for me Argentina- or Canada or the UK or France or…
Oprah will be alright. She’ll miss you terribly because being the special person she is, she needs to be fed and nurtured and without you she’ll get thirsty and hungry for your attention.
All you have to do is look into her eyes.
