Oprah Winfrey has a new book coming out because OMG – does she ever stop? The book is called The Wisdom of Sundays: Life-Changing Insights from Super Soul Conversations and it comes out next week. It’s a collection of conversations from her show, Super Soul Sunday, which revolves around life lessons and ‘aha’ moments. Arianna Davis, the senior features writer for Refinery 29, was assigned to cover an event at Oprah’s house to promote the book. For a little more context, Ariana began her career as a self-doubting, 22-year old intern for O, The Oprah Magazine and worked her way up to her current position. So this assignment was quite meaningful for her and it shows in her essay. While at the event, however, she had her own personal ‘aha’ moment and it came directly from Oprah herself.
There’s endless meaningful conversations on Super Soul Sunday, which now live in its pages, so I asked her how, in today’s dissonant world, we can all learn to have similar conversations with people who have a different viewpoint than we do — without it turning angry or spiteful.
“Mark Nepo said something in the book… He says, ‘Every experience we have reveals to us a word in the language of our own wisdom, which only we can start to learn.’ It means that every experience speaks to you exactly where you are. So you and I can have the same experience, and it doesn’t mean the same thing because I’m not where you are, so we’re not tracking it the same. What I’m feeling about this time we’re in right now in this country, is that this is a critical moment. We’re at a crossroads in our human culture. Everybody talks about staying woke, well: This is how you get woke. You gotta wake up yourself first. I believe this is a moment for us all to think ‘What do I need to do differently?’ And then we can start as a collective conscious thinking about what we all need to do differently, before we even start having these conversations.”
But my own aha moment, as Oprah likes to call it, came when she explained the reason she hasn’t stopped with The Oprah Winfrey Show, or with launching a magazine, or a network, or even now with a new role as a correspondent on 60 Minutes. After all, it would be pretty easy to just retire on that big, fancy property of hers.
“I know part of why I came to this planet is to deliver this message: You are enough, and as you delve deeper into the you that is enough, you will have and lead the richest, most open, fulfilled life for yourself,” she said. And then, she looked at me. Deep into my eyes and straight into my soul, I swear. “It’s not my journey, it’s yours. That’s my goal, to get people to see that for themselves. It’s miraculous when you can do it.”
I love these thoughts in theory, I really do. But, like, why couldn’t my journey include a 65-acre spread in Santa Barbara and the Medal of Freedom? I assume when I got to the ‘multi-hyphenated billionaire’ path, I tripped and stumbled down the path on the left. I agree whole heartedly with Oprah’s comments about asking ourselves what we can do differently so we can then, collectively, ask the same. This is a personal journey I’ve been on and it’s been hard, but I know it’s made me a more mindful parent and hopefully, a more mindful person.
Unlike delivering her messages of wisdom Oprah does not see running for office as her purpose. Yesterday, on CBS The Morning, Oprah said, “There will be no running for office of any kind for me.” When asked about Weinstein, Oprah, who starred in the Weinstein vehicle, The Butler, said “I’m always trying to look for the rainbow in the cloud, whatever is the silver lining. And this is what I do know for sure: Something this major happens, when you have the fallout, 50 women coming forward, that it’s a watershed moment.” Again, we can hope, but it’s hard right now. She also spoke about working with some actresses who had not slept in days. When Oprah tried to figure out why they weren’t sleeping, she realized the actresses were suffering from PTSD. Please, please let this actually be the watershed moment Oprah suggests it is.
Photo credit: WENN Photos
“You are enough” is a hard message to believe, particularly when living in a capitalist world that feeds on monetizing insecurities.
It is, but it’s incredibly freeing when you start to believe it. I do not lead an easy life in many ways, but knowing that I am enough does make all the difference.
The one thing that has been the most exhausting thing about this point in American society and the post-2016 election is the constant talking “get out of your bubbles” and talk to people with various viewpoints with absolutely no nuance or necessary qualifiers. You think trickle down economics works? Let’s talk. You think the US should withdraw from the UN? Let’s have a beer a discuss. You think all Muslims are terrorists? Go eff yourself. Not all viewpoints are legitimate and not all viewpoints deserve a platform. This is why Milo what’s his face and Richard Spencer get invited to speak on campuses. People out here think they’re being cute and open minded, but in reality they are pushing the bounds of objectivity and fairness to dangerous levels. 🙂
Post-rant feelings: I love Oprah. I love her story. I love her message. I’m an Oprah Stan.
It’s one of the things that makes me angry right now. Not all opinions are worthy of the spotlight they are getting right now. I teach civics and one of the things I teach is what makes an argument a good argument. One of the tings that makes an argument a good argument according to our state-sanctioned learning materials is that it’s based on facts. In reality, a lot of spotlighted opinions don’t even come close to being based on facts.
Honestly, I haven’t yet read this post. I’m not sure I can right now. But she gets applause for this statement. So this is context for a statement about to be made out of context. 🙂
I know Oprah can be problematic for a lot of people. But in a world of shit right now, I’m enjoying her Pollyanna vibe.
Ya agreed. She’s what I need right now.
That and poems about buttons
We all love Oprah, so we sometimes overlook what is obvious to other people. She’s been in an unmarried relationship for decades. She’s black. She has no children to parade at campaign spots.
It sometimes seems like running for elected office is the way people who want to become more influential give it one last shot before retirement. I can’t see Oprah EVER retiring, and I can’t see elected office giving her any more influence than she has right now.