Farewell Oprah Show and Farewell To the Oprah Show Contests

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that Oprah is ending her 25 year run as the queen of daytime talk. I am going to miss her show, as it has inspired me, uplifted me and entertained me over the last 10 or so years since I became a devotee. I have participated in her book club, her Debt Diet and her web casts. She inspired me to think more about my spirituality, my level of compassion and my everyday thankfulness. I keep a gratitude journal and I embarked on a year long Giving Project because of her. I didn't always love every show she did, nor did I always agree with everything she said, but I find her authenticity, earnestness and compassion very compelling. There isn't anyone else like her on the small screen and I wonder who, if anyone, will fill the void when she goes off the air. There is far too much reality, tabloid and plain ole' bad t.v. out there, so the void will be obvious and immense indeed.

The one thing I will not miss is the contests. Contests you ask?! If there was a contest associated with the Oprah Winfrey Show in the last 8 years, I entered it. I entered about a dozen contests to meet her, go to a spa with her, to get tickets to her show and to travel with her. I wrote letters, designed collages on postcards, sent photographs and penned poetry. I would get myself worked up into an anticipatory excitement at the mere possibility of winning a coveted spot in whatever contest was underway. Every single time I was shut out. I never got so much as a courtesy reply in return for all this energy and enthusiasm. I have to admit, I was getting pissed off right around the time she picked about a billion ultimate viewers to fill the Chicago stadium for her last shows. Of course, I was not chosen. Then I had an "Ah-Ha" moment while watching part one of the grand finale.

I was sitting on my couch, remote in one hand, Kleenex in the other watching the 3rd to the last Oprah episode. It was a grand spectacle that rivaled an Oscar production; replete with badly written dialogue, splashy song and dance numbers and a full orchestra to cue us in on the really emotional stuff. It was working and I loved every minute of it. I was more than a bit veclempt watching everyone send Oprah off with heartfelt farewells. What really captured my attention was a segment on the children who grew up watching Oprah. One child said something to the effect that because of her, she realized that she was not to blame for the abuse she suffered. Whoa. That was very powerful. Oprah reached into the life of a child, one she had never met and thorough the power of her show changed this child's life. That child was more than an ultimate viewer. She is an ultimate survivor. There was much more to this than Hollywood-type production. This was about the power of one and paying it forward.

Because of this segment, started paying closer attention to the people featured in these last shows and in the accompanying articles in O Magazine. One woman's life was saved because she watched a show on what to do during an abduction. Never let them take you to another location was the message. She got it and fought like hell when an abductor tried to do just that. It saved her life. Another women was able to stand on the precipice of despair without falling into the abyss when her 13 month old daughter died. All because of a show she watched about that very same thing. The rawness, the compassion and the openness of dealing with the death of a small child on Oprah's show was all that tethered her to her shattered life. Then Oprah told the story of how she was stopped in a grocery store and was told because of her show on physical abuse, this woman stopped beating her children. She told Oprah it was all she knew. She had been beat. Her mother had been beat. Now that she stopped the beatings, she had different children and wanted to thank her. Stories like these go on and on. Oprah really did change people's lives, one person at a time.

I realized, after taking all of this in, there was a reason I never won one of those contests. I was not deserving. By that I mean, I was not deserving in the way that so many of these stories illustrate what it means to be deserving. There are thousands if not millions of people out there that needed to win these contests so much more than I did. I have a wonderful life and very few real struggles. The few struggles I have, I have weathered with the help of family, friends, self determination and strength. I have not lost a child, a spouse, a home, a job or a limb. I have not been beaten, raped, discriminated against nor left to survive alone in this world. I am not barren, cancer ridden or brain damaged. I am blessed. Sure, I would love to meet Oprah and experience all the accompanying excitement that goes with winning one of her contests. But my well being doesn't depend upon it. I hope that the winners of all those contests that I lost were people who really needed to win. I hope their lives were made just a bit better by the winning. The thought makes me smile. Wasn't that the whole point of the show? We all need to be more compassionate, to be more grateful for our blessings and to understand each other's stories. I know I understand my own story just a bit better from watching Oprah and losing all those Oprah contests.

Thanks for all those lessons, Oprah.