What Oprah's Last Show Meant To Me
Commitmentnow's Editor Paula Davis shares her thoughts on Oprah's final goodbye
I cancelled all my appointments. I made sure nothing would interrupt. I got my children together and told them we all had to watch.
It was Oprah’s last show and I needed to be there. I wanted my children there too.
I was a young college student when Oprah began her show, and from the start, I knew this woman had something to teach me.
I was never a crazed Oprah fan. I never watched the show daily or religiously in any way, but when time and life allowed, I watched and I learned and my respect for this woman grew steadily over the years.
In every way, in every scenario, Oprah’s life should not have gone the way it has.
She started out with everything, absolutely everything, working against her.
Except she had something special deep within herself and a deep faith in God, and with those two key things, all the other negatives were blanked out and no longer could be a force keeping this amazing women down.
If you met her at age 14, after she had been sexually abused and given birth to a son who died, you might not see the amazing star that was about to burst forth in the future. You might just see a wayward kid from a messed up life.
It makes me wonder now: how many times do we meet a person and think we know their story? We assume we know the start, middle and finish of who they are and who they are going to be, but when you think back to Oprah’s humble and painful beginnings, it is evident we never really know a person’s story until it plays out. Like a flower who begins as a weed, a person can flower so beautifully we shake our heads and marvel at what this puny seed somehow managed to grow into.
In seeing Oprah’s success, we can all believe in ourselves just a bit more. If this woman, coming into life with so much working against her, could barrel down these barriers and become this beautiful, successful person, loved and respected by millions, all the while keeping her values and being true to herself, what could we also be and break through to become who we are suppose to be?
That was her message and in seeing her convey this message, I thought: how kind. She didn’t make her final show all about her greatness or what she accomplished, but it was clear she wanted to give something to the audience that we all could walk away and learn from. Her love for her audience was behind the choices of how she would conduct her last show: she wanted us to know and understand what she believed fueled her success and she wanted us to experience success also.
She gave us, the audience, honor, when she said: “What I want you to know, as this show ends, each one of you has your own platform. Do not let the trappings here fool you: mine is a stage and a studio. Yours is wherever you are, within your own reach, however small or large that reach is, maybe 20 or 30 people, your family, friends, your neighbors, your classroom, your co-workers, wherever you are, that is your platform, your stage, your circle of influence, that is your talk show and that is where your power lives, and everyday in everyway you are letting your light speak for you and when you do that, you will receive in direct proportion to how you give.”
At that moment, I completely understood why we the audience loved her so much: it was because she loved us and has always been trying to give us something that would help us through the pains of our life.
I thought a lot about what she said, that we all had a platform, and even if it wasn’t a talk show, we all had a sphere of influence in which we could choose what we convey. I thought about my own personal ‘talk show’ my children mostly, of whom I am the host of the show everyday as I take care of them. What kind of host am I? Am I teaching them and loving them the way they deserve to be taught and treated? I hope so. I think of the choices Oprah could have made with her show, and with each year, she made more and more choices that would benefit her audience.
And, in benefitting us, she benefitted herself, because, as she said, what you give is what you receive and what you do to others comes back to you.
I think of that and I think of all the relationships in my life, the good, the bad, the ones that have worked out beautifully and the ones falling apart, and I am forced to see my role in all of it. Who did I do right by? Who have I wronged? Who I have given my love to and where do I need to change my actions and offer more love and healing?
In letting us know that each of us has a platform, I also see her as being very humble. She didn’t stand before us with a haughty ‘I am the queen and you are the servants’ attitude. She stood before us and tried to share her power with us—alerting us to the fact that while her platform is a stage and a studio, we too have a platform and a reach. Her kindness, and I think that is one of the keys to the core of who Oprah is, that kindness I appreciate and thank her for. She didn’t need to put her audience on the same playing field as herself, but she chose to lift us all up and say: you have this power too and you need to use it.
I also felt moved when she described herself as “a lonely little girl” and she choked up as she said those words, because sometimes when I am feeling at my most negative, I think that the problems I have faced will just continue to repeat themselves throughout my life, and yet in that moment I saw that a lonely little girl could grow up and have a huge abundance of love and friendship and never, ever have to feel lonely again. In understanding this reality through the life of another person, I saw that negative patterns could truly be broken and thrown away, never to appear again. For some it is harder than others, but it is possible. It is possible. Suddenly, I see that some of my problems, as persistent as they are, could maybe someday disappear if I am willing to do the work to make them disappear. If I am strong enough, loving enough, maybe just maybe I can someday look at my past and see my present life as incredibly and unbelievably better than I ever thought possible.
Lonely will never again describe Oprah’s reality. What realities could I also erase in my life, if this woman could make her reality change so completely?
I loved how she ended the show. She told us she loved us, she thanked us the audience, and she gave the glory to God.
If I liked Oprah before her last show, I am now a lifelong admirer and friend.
I say friend because even though I never met her, she wanted to give me, her audience, something that would personally help my life—and she accomplished that. She was and has always been a good sharer.
I am grateful. Thank you Oprah. All the best to you, because down the last day of your show, you gave us your best.
