What Are We To Do Without Oprah?

What a week! We managed to survive the last Saturday only to be faced with what some may argue is an even worse prospect -- the end of The Oprah Show.

There’s been much speculation about where we’re going to get our daily dose of inspiration after tomorrow. For those of you who’ve read my column before, you know where I’ll be getting mine -- are still on TV, aren’t they? Sometimes it’s easier to be inspired by what not to do. 

In preparation for the Oprah void, I headed over to Barnes & Noble to find inspiration from their stacks of self-help books. I thumbed through many diet books hoping for inspiration to get rid of these last ten pounds. The only problem was they talk about food so much I ended up reading them while snacking at the café. Not exactly the inspiration I was going for. I also read the ones with all the rules about how to stop procrastinating in order to succeed. Luckily there are numerous books on this subject so I can continue to expend many hours learning how to stop procrastinating. 

I also found a book filled with success stories of other mothers that are meant to inspire me. There were stories of stay-at-home moms who have created multi-million dollar web businesses, women who head international charities, and ones who serve in public office. I wasn’t inspired, I was intimidated. Can they take it down a notch for those of us who are trying to run our homes and not the world? Tell me about the mothers who aren’t afraid to hit Target the week before school starts. Tell me about moms of special needs kids, single moms, and the moms who actually bake for the PTA bake sales. Then I’ll be inspired.

My hunt for inspiration may have not been a great success, but it did make me think about what it is I’m looking for. The problem with inspiration is that by its very definition, it’s merely a jumping off point. It can make us feel good or give us a new perspective, but the affect tends to be temporary. That’s why there are so many books on the same themes and a television show that can run for 25 years with inspiration as its dictum. If inspiration endured, you’d only need it once, you wouldn’t have to keep watching the show or searching for a new book. It’s the follow-through that’s important and we can’t get that from anyone else. We have to do that for ourselves, which is something we might not want to do. It certainly takes more work than repeating a catchy quote or proverb.

So what are we going to do without Oprah? I, for one, plan to just get on with it – I’ll eat less and exercise more, I’ll work through writer’s block, and I’ll remind myself to be happy and grateful no matter the circumstances. I am not going to worry about a lack of inspiration just because a television program is going off the air.

I’ll also renew my O Magazine subscription. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Here's the news on Oprah's last show from the Huffington Post. The show airs today, May 25, at 4 p.m. on WFSB-TV Channel 3.