Oprah Gave Me Homework!
I was excited about my trip to the Oprah Winfrey show before – but now I’m REALLY excited. You see – my friends and I got another email from Oprah’s producers about our taping.
Oprah’s staff first emailed us last week to tell us the date of our taping had changed! So we had to scramble to change our plans and pay extra fees to change our flights. I’ll admit I was a little annoyed but the optimist in me thought, “this is because we are being put in a more fabulous audience.” As I said in the blog post I wrote for MyLifeList.org — I love the “The Secret” — what can I say?
Fast-forward four days. FACT – we are being put in a more fabulous audience!!!!
The most recent email says we’re invited to a screening of the documentary “I Am,” before our Wednesday taping. We’ll be discussing it on the show. They said this show taping would be a little different from their normal shows.
Now this is where it gets really good…it also says:
The audience you will be in will have a rare chance for its members to speak directly with and ask questions to Oprah.”
And there it is!!! I will, in fact, be able to speak to Oprah Winfrey on Wednesday!!!!! OMG! Now I need to prepare! You know I made a list, of course.
As a journalist – research is my thing…so I’ve been doing my homework about this documentary. I watched the trailer for it and it looks amazing and right up my alley. It was released in March, so if you’ve seen it – please let me know your thoughts.
I’m now formulating NEW questions to ask Oprah – as the latest email says,
“Audience participation is crucial! (And you may get to be on TV!) This show will be an open-mic forum for all to participate….”
I’ll be tweeting and blogging about this up until the Harpo people take my cell phone away before the taping! Apparently that’s what they do.
Thank you to all who wrote in and tweeted about my last blog and gave me recommendations for restaurants and questions for Oprah. Now that we have more info – please help me with my latest homework assignment so I can speak to Oprah for sure!
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I definitely learned about most of this, but with that said, I still assumed it had been beneficial. Sweet task!
You MUST watch the Oprah Masters Class before departure; add this to your list. Damn Oprah is deep, focused, grounded, spiritual, moving, in touch and in tune…with so much to share in EVERY WORD. Her story and the way she accepts her story, good, bad, molestation, unwantedness, shame, her life and the lessons she has learned from it and her acceptance of it all, is powerful – inspiring!
Powerful is right! I’ve seen the first part but I have to watch the second half tonight before I leave!
Its truly amazing that she has become what she has become. But it just shows you the “power of one,” – she believed she was meant for greatness and everything around her fell into place to allow for that. Wow!
Thanks so much for your comments and for reading my blog.
Hello Paula, I am so excited for your news. Speak from your heart. Your preparedness with reward you. As awesome as Oprah is, she is human too and she’ll appreciate your genius. Love that the ‘Secret’ really came through for you this time. Absolutely phenomenal! Congratulations and I can’t wait to hear the rest of this story.
Thanks Andrea — I’m so excited about the opportunity. It really goes to show — just put it out there..and it doesn’t matter how it actually happens! I will def let you know how it goes! I’m reading up as we speak so I can be an overachiever ! haha
OK. Just read the documentary site. Here’s a list of my first impulse/s:
1. I was right about the heart thing (mentioned in my last post). It happens to be a lesson I too have learned. Our brains are fabulous, and I am profoundly grateful for mine. It has saved me on many occasions and opened many doors that took me on fabulous adventures. I love my brain. That said, a brain can be very dangerous when/if detached in some way from a heart. It is the connection that is imperative – not just for our own personal happiness, but for the existence of Tom’s quest to contribute to ‘a better world’. And I don’t even buy into the notion that the heart and mind are truly separate entities either. We just create boxes in order to deal with reality as we’re stumbling along. So this is complex, and no one has the answers. What we do know, however, is that when you start boxing off and labeling these major factors of being alive, of having real Intelligence, that’s when things start breaking down in not-so-great ways. We are whole beings, and we are part of a whole, infinite entity.
2. I’d also say that humor is key. This guy is credited as writer for some very clever comedies. Liar Liar is one of my all-time favs. I’ve always found humor is key to pretty much everything. As it turned out, I ended up acting and designing a ton of Shakespeare – both comedies and dramas. After a while I came to the conclusion that quirky genius (Shakespeare) managed to communicate pretty much the same thing with the same depth in either form. While one was dark and difficult to live over the course of putting on a play, the other was a total blast! So why not laugh? I ended up being cast in more comedies after that. I just slipped over a line. Sure—you can’t laugh at everything that happens in life. I didn’t laugh at the news of the 20 baby dolphins that washed up dead on the seashore, and I don’t laugh at the sickos who are up there in Canada right now beating darling, completely vulnerable and totally trusting baby seals to a bloody, painful death either… some things you just can’t and should laugh at… but most things in life can be looked at with loving humor. I think it comes down to laughing ‘WITH’ not ‘AT’, and that includes ourselves(!) And I think that Tom gets that, and that he got that early on.
3. So, the people in this movie Tom interviews are mature thought-leaders who have lived and breathed these types of questions over long and fascinating careers. And guess what? They don’t know the answers either. On the one hand, they’ll have insightful things to share with Tom-the-Host, but on the other hand, they too are struggling to make sense of any of this life and struggling to find a way to be true while living in a crazy time and a crazy culture in a whole world of crazy cultures. And they know they’re only human with all the things that being human comes with.
Which brings me to the last thing I want to say:
4. What I have been contemplating lately is that on this Earth, the dominant species (that’d be us) tends to be incredibly self-centered and self-servicing. Human-centric. We humans are only one of many other living beings on this planet. Beings we do not and can not fully understand, and have no right to judge or rule over, let alone kill off or manipulate with modern technologies like GMO’s and accidents resulting from playing with radioactivity. So I would challenge Tom in some way with something on the lines of: the greatest problems in this world as it is can almost always be traced back to the incredible folly of human arrogance and narcissism. We think we’re better and more important than the other creatures. We really do (most of do, anyway). And we make our choices around that, and those choices lead us down super destructive paths, most of the time, as a species. And if we did less of that, maybe the world would be a much better place. Maybe.
And I’ll stop now : )
I hope you have an awesome time, and that you get to ask your question/s.
Zoe — thanks so much for checking out the trailer and for all these well-thought out points! Love it! You are a deep lady! haha I’m going to do more research and be totally prepared– appreciate these ideas. Thanks!
OK. You need to ask what you feel in your heart of hearts. That’s the question that needs to be asked. There are two questions: 1. What do I want to ask on the show while the taping is taking place, which would have to do with the documentary, and 2. What do I want to ask Oprah when/if I get that one chance (I’m guessing that’s off camera).
So… I do know that you’ve made it into the special audience, and that matters. I also have insider info on how the Dr. Oz Show producers select audience members who get called onstage. I’ve been part of that process several times at this point. Paula, I can tell you that on the phone if you like.
So I’d ask what you really want to ask. I mean the real deal – whatever that is. This isn’t a woman that wants an easy question. This is a deep, brave person who will appreciate another deep, brave person. She doesn’t just want a fan. She wants an appreciator, yes, and she wants respect, yes, but I’ve had the opportunity in my life be tutored by some stars in other circles and you know what? Here’s what I learned:
Anyone that gifted who has gotten that far on merit (and a whole ‘list’ of other must-haves, like persistence, courage, creativity, etc.) and is at this stage in their lives… wants to pass on the wisdom to others… to ‘students’ as well… who are worthy. Which translated means, “May someday take up the flag and make it their own.”
One of the greats I’ve known all my life and who knows and has known many of the greatest stars in the world keeps his advice very simple: BE BRILLIANT.
To which I will add: SPEAK FROM YOUR HEART OF HEARTS, PAULA!
This is amazing advice Zoe — thank you so much!!! I’m going to do this for sure!