Mixed Feelings About Oprah

When did I stop idolizing Oprah? I think it started after her weight loss journey and consequent regaining of most of that wagon of lard.

Having dealt with a weight problem myself, I knew there was ONLY one way to health: eat healthy food, eat less, exercise, drink lots of water. No big secret. After Oprah did her crash diet, began spouting her Oprah reasons how everyone can do the same thing, in fact ENCOURAGING people to join her, she lost my respect. Over the years I have seen many people go down that road. They are fat, they lose weight, they preach to others how to do what they did, what book to buy that held the keys to the perfect diet. I would just shake my head and wait until they gained the pounds back they had lost, and more, only to watch them eat crow.

There was a group of women at my job who decided to lose weight together. I had to spend hours, and I honestly mean HOURS every day listening to them talk about what they were doing and EATING that day, the night before, etc.

At that point I realized another sure way that diets fail: people TALK too much about food. If you are talking about it, then you are THINKING about it and that it the beginning of the end. Those women talked about food every hour. I have learned to stop thinking about food, ignore all food commercials on TV, all ads in publications. I treat food as medicine and NEVER as a "treat." I was fed in an unhealthy way as a child and my brain had to be rewired. But, like a recovered alcoholic---my brain has the paths and I know I must be vigilant.

It is the preaching I hate. Will Oprah buy, for those people in her audience, all the expensive organic foods she ate during her diet? Will she pay for a private chef as she had? No. For all her talk about how Maya Angelou and Dr. Phil helped her find her true self (Can any of us call them on speed dial like she can? No.) , I doubt she will find her true self for a very long time because she is in denial.

Oprah is a rich person with every advantage the rest of us will never have. She wants to SEE herself as "one of us" who just hasn't made it yet because we haven't evolved to her place on higher ground. Oprah, you worked hard and got some breaks. You got lucky. The majority of the people in this world will never get those breaks or be that lucky, no matter how righteous and emotionally together they are. That's just life. You are not one of us.

Oprah is celebrating her send-off with her rich, lucky friends. Tom Hanks will tell you he got lucky. Tom Cruise will preach. The world is full of both types of people. The preachers are usually the most unhappiest, most lost, of the two. I have never seen that to fail. Ever wonder why after all her years, Oprah has only one "real friend?" I wonder. With all the millions of people she has access to, ONE? Really? And Stedman, explain that one to me. If he is so self-confidant why WOULDN'T he marry her? Really? (That is as flimsy as Brad and Angelina not marrying until everyone can--oh, oh, oh, sure, well, if you WANTED to marry then you would be moving mountains to get a Federal law passed allowing gay marriage, BRAD&!!)

Oprah made a telling statement on her show with Chaz Bono recently, she said something about not understanding how a bisexual could love a man inside a woman's body. She made a face to a response of "I never loved a woman until ___ came along." Oprah acted like she had never heard that before. Her face twisting into that, "I don't understand," look of hers. Well, Oprah, Anne Heche sat right there and spoke those EXACT same words about Ellen. Did you learn nothing from that? Maybe you should read up on bisexuality. Or do you think you need to express what you think your audience might be thinking?

So, O lost me. I only tune in when there is a topic of great interest to me. All the "I pulled myself back from the brink," and big star interviews, those have ceased to hold my interest. I read enough about people who fight illness and misfortune and find an inner strength they didn't know they had. The book club thing NEVER interested me.

What I love about Oprah, and always will, is how she has inspired woman of color to "go for it." And how she has inspired many people to think about life in new ways, try new things. And how she was there after Phil Donahue left. Donahue really opened doors, got into controversies, and he spoke my liberal-minded language. (Oh, thanks O, for backing Obama like that.)

Well, Blogger just posted this before I was done! The power of O...
O has become a machine now. I miss the first O. But OWN will live on as will the many donations of time and money O has made.