You all know I have been on the last train to Gloomy Town for awhile now but sometimes when you quiet your mind for a second you hear the exact message that you need to hear.
This afternoon I got caught up in the final show of Oprah's 25 years of doing her show. - that is because I am a 'last show' kind of guy - but this thing was beyond amazing.
Over the years she gave me plenty to make fun of her for, especially in the early years when she had bad hair and bad outfits and bad shows. She was one of the first people that ever did goofy reality show stunts like putting the KKK and Black Civil Rights Activists on the same stage. NO ONE was changing any one's minds but it was fun to watch the freak show. Again...I openly admit that I am a 'freak show' kind of guy.
Today, for the hour, she and she alone talked about the lessons she had taken from her experiences with her show and what she hoped everyone had taken from it too. It was such a major education for me about deserving to feel worthy for my own talents -that I always was afraid I didn't really have. I feared that some day someone would expose me for the fraud of an educator that I was. I told the kids what they needed to do to be genuinely happy in this world but I wasn't living the message for myself.
Forget for now how I lost track, that is a discussion for another time.
I like to think that my true gift in this world is to be able to converse with anyone on a million possible topics and keep them and myself engaged for as long as we both needed to. My father always told me to ask people a lot of question. People love talking about themselves and that is SO TRUE.
I you just take the time to ask them what THEY think of for example guns, comic books, octopus, lol kitties, graphic illustration, television or the weird and strange and magnificent things that are always happening on this goofy little planet of ours - they will genuinely have something to tell me that I never thought of before. I then store that information in the huge database that is my brain only so I can recall it at a later time to enlighten a future conversation or challenge someone to defend their beliefs.
I totally admit that when it come to the subject of RELIGION that I can be very judgemental and narrow minded about people who use their beliefs to defend why they hate what OTHER people believe or chose for their lifestyle. Of course I am doing the exact same thing.
But I will also proudly say that there is not a single person out there who has commented on my blog in the past 4 years - on one of several of the nearly 9000 posts I have done that I haven't reached back to and made some kind of a connection with. Some followers have become some of the closest and most important people in my life today. I know that they 'get me' and chuckle a little when you see a story in the media about some stupid octopus (you did know that the LAST Space Shuttle Mission had little octopi with them in space to observe how they acted in zero gravity. I will tell you how they acted... (feel free to finish that thought in your own head. You all already know EXACTLY what I think)
What I am saying is that everyone needs to watch Oprah's final show. Download the torrent or watch it on You Tube or wherever you can find it on The Google. I swear to you that not a word she said rang false and not a single piece of advice wasn't something EVERYONE needed to be reminded of.
You are all free to laugh at me now. I get that. I am often not 'ha ha' funny but 'peculiar' funny. I also apologize to anyone who hates that about me because you are going to like me even less from now on. I am a changed man.
I feel great today. Before starting this post I took her most earnest plea at the end of the hour to tell at least one person that I thought they were amazing and that I totally understood who they were and honestly believed they could be magnificent whether they thought the same or not.. It's that whole belief that I am a guy who is worthy of happiness. And so are YOU.
I feel at peace and my churning mind is finally still for the first time in a long time.
I thank Sister Oprah for giving me this gift today. I touched that 'Face of Grace' (though my 'god' leans more towards 'Galactus' than 'Yahweh' at this moment....'cough') and am deeply impressed with the effect it had on me.
Sure tomorrow I may get right back under that little black rain cloud - because I am an 'extreme weather' kind of guy - but for now - everything is all Cool in the Cave.
