Letters to the Editor
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Bilious screed
Your bilious screed was hatefully over the top and overdetermined. I felt mesmerized as if by a snake charmer and did indeed read it through. Neither a fan of Oprah's or of "The Secret", I find this scurrilious style of opinion offering distasteful and unecessararily rageful. I am cancelling my subscription if this type of writing passes muster for the editors of salon.com
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Talent and Belief
If this article was scratch-n-sniff, it's probably smell like brimstone. But somehow, it smells right.
A couple of weeks ago, I started a conversation with a college student in a public park. She had an eighteen-month-old daughter and in the course of our conversation had related to how little time she had to spend with her child between work and school. She was singing her little girl the most amazing alphabet song. When I asked her which album she learned it from, she told me she made it up herself. I thought it was exceptional, and I told her so. I suggested that she take the time to send it off, using the Songwriter's Market. Our children went about playing, and when I went to say goodbye, I overheard her praying out loud over her child's banged shin, taking the pain out in Jesus' Name, clasping her hands down the leg as if trying to come out on top of baseball bat contest for first on.
South Tulsa--where I went to school--was rife with the name-it-and-claim-it, I have the symptoms of a cold but not a cold, Word-Faith positive confession crowd megachurches which passed themselves off as schools (This does not include ORU, which was pretty grounded, at least in the classrooms). The Secret is this self-same religious confessionism warmed over. I will never forget the time I had a ten year old neighbor tell me that the reason they lived so long in Genesis was because they didn't know words like "heart attack" and "stroke." "Dear," I said. "Wouldn't that mean every heart surgeon in the world would drop dead?" Are onocologist--particularly pediatric onocologist doomed to a bad fate? Perhaps we should be clearing out St. Jude.
And living in Mississippi, I can't help but ask what of Ms. Winfrey's efforts in Kosciusko? (Yes, I can spell it off the top of my head. Weird, huh?) Were us Mississippians not as telegenic as South Africans as we only recieved a youth center and not a full-blown school? What makes South Africa so special, aside from her trendy actor friends publicist's suggestion that African charity makes great copy? Do you think Brad Pitt would get nearly the print if he put a Boys and Girl's Town in Kosciusko?
I didn't bother to tell the girl that if Paul could be crucified upside-down, having done more than I in the heal-the-sick department, then who are we to exempt ourselves from a playground owie? Just because I think good thoughts doesn't mean I'll be in The Color Purple, and have Tom Cruise jump my couch. I might--just maybe--have to have some acting talent (and a truckload of luck) to get that far myself.
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Eileen and Emily and anyone else in the boat
I'll gladly pick up rolls for everyone, but I need to make a profit here! I mean, come on!
I'm visualizing a profit, after buying some sourdough and pumpernickel rolls, while also throwing Eileen a life preserver so that she won't drown.
AND Strangely, I have now realized the life preserver is shaped like a doughnut.
And now I'm hungry. For doughnuts.
Wait. Were we visualizing hunger? I can't remember now. I'm so tired.
I'll feel much better when I've collected all my money!
Sadly, of course, as seen above, it has all turned into a 'screed.' I hate it when that happens. Were we visualizing a screed? I can't remember. Have I mentioned I'm sleepy and need a doughnut?
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Whose opinion could be wiser (grander, powerfu, etc.), Birkenhead or Oprah?
I find it curious that (one would assume) a male, who one could assume is not as successful or wise or living as grand a life as Oprah, would determine that his opinion matters more or carries more weight. Gee, if I have to imagine whose opinion I will pay closer attention to between the two....hmmm...
But mostly, I trust myself, my own experience. I have always known the information presented in the Secret is true. I live it and have lived it for decades before the Secret came out. The Secret, was produced by Rhonda Byrne after she came upon this information, found benefit for herself, and imagined how it might benefit the masses. It is not deep; it is not complex; it is not new, necessarily, or complete but it is being sent out to benefit a great many people. Many people are being presented with this information who otherwise might not have had access to it, those who Birkenhead mentions precisely. I am a Chicana. I didn't have the benefit of a college education. Yet, over the years I have applied the principles of the Secret. I own a beautiful multi-million dollar home in a beautiful town; I love and am loved; I have a creative life, great health, and I contribute strongly to both my local community and to certain efforts to heal globally. My children have grown into the finest of people. There is no blaming the victim here. There is a commitment to create the eradication of victmhood. The people around me take a hundred percent responsibility for what shows up in our lives. This is a glorious reflection I've created. I work with teenage girls, half of whom are from Israel and half of whom are Palestinian. They are imagining and applying PEACE. Great concept. So Oprah is excited about the Secret because this is exactly what she has been trying to support with her program: personal responsibility. And it is what she has lived, before seeing the Secret. As have I. Mr. Birkenhead, you are creating whatever you want, yet in this reader, to weigh Oprah's opinion against yours, and have her be "losing credibility" according to you, do you actually think this isn't laughable? Thanks for that laugh. May the veil for you lift.