i think i've been oprahed

What better way to spend time recovering from minor surgery than watching hours of bad television and movies curled up on the couch? Day 4 into that, I caught one of those episodes of Oprah that fires up the consumer capitalist in us all: a giveaway show. Her theme for the show was the summer beach bag and all the goodies we should charge on our credit cards and put in said beach bag (unless we were one of the fortunate who were given these goodies on the show). The first summer "must-have" was Robin Thicke's latest cd (you know the cool son-of-Alan [thanks Rana] with a falsetto smooth enough to woo smoking diva Paula Patton).

Thicke performed a couple of tunes on the show to back up Oprah's claims that The Evolution ... is the cd to have and you know what, I was totally sucked in. I imagined riding down the midwest highways on my way to the beach, visor back, Robin Thicke pumping through the speakers ... In other words, I was Oprahed.

Any of you who have been Oprahed know what I'm talking about (anyone who's gone out and bought The Secret has been Oprahed). She just has this uncanny ability to convince her viewers to do things: read certain books, stop eating beef, buy "must-have" products. And while I have neither time nor the inclination to be a regular watcher of the show, each time I kneel at the altar of her stage in Harpo studios, I am totally converted. I want to teach at her school or go hunt down one of those sickass internet predators all on my own and sacrifice him at the feet of Oprah. I want to download Robin Thicke's album (which wouldn't be that big of a deal except that I'm not a fan of sappy R & B).

I'm also not exactly a "fan" of Oprah though I do admire her. Her gift to motivate people to aspire to better lives can be channelled toward good ends. Trying to negotiate that motivation with the dose of consumerism and materialism that accompanies it can be really tricky though.