Oprah Winfrey- Self Made and Self Loving

So as my American Studies class has probably noticed by now, I am not the biggest fan of Oprah. I appreciate how much charity work she has done, but thats about it. Oprah has accomplished many things in her lifetime and what makes her special and respectable is how she is the perfect example of the self-made (wo)man. In this month's edition of the Chicago Magazine, she is featured on the front with an article titled "Oprah Unbound" and the article questioned if all the fame and fortune has changed her. The answer: it has. So my question is, has that change affected people's opinions of her?

It is only natural that such success would change a person, having millions of people determine what they read next based off of your opinion can be stressful but also complimentary. The article explains how in the beginning when she was the talk show host of A.M. Chicago (later named The Oprah Winfrey Show) she could be seen taking the public bus to work every morning, taking jogs on the lake side, and stopping into her then restaurant, The Eccentric, to say hi. Now a days, things are a bit different.

Originally on the show she would get her own water, but now she has people to do that for her. She has shut down the restaurant she used to frequently go to to visit her fans, and her neighbors claim that now the only way they know she's home is because her jet is in the driveway. She even withdrew buying a Chicago duplex because, "she realized that residents from nearby apartments could see into her windows." This seems a bit extreme, but it's true. She definitely has gained an ego throughout the years, and though she may need some of one, has it gotten to be too much?

Now, I understand Oprah has done amazing things with charity, and she has created an empire which she still owns herself, it really is incredible. But in the beginning she was humble and modest, in fact, those words were popping up everywhere when explaining her background, but now a days the same cannot be said. In my opinion, it doesnt take away from what she has physically done, but it does take away from her persona. I wouldnt necessarily want to meet Oprah (would I decline the offer? No... but I wouldnt make an effort to meet her), and I have no desire to sit and watch a show that I feel is her naming her favorite things and people drooling over it. 30 Rock did an excellent episode with her starring in it. Sitting on a plane, she tells Liz Lemon all the things on her list of her new favorite things... it was quite humorous (Liz was also loopy off of travel pills at the time, but thats besides the point). My point is that someone who is self-made like Oprah definitely has more respect than someone who is born into riches, but with the persona that Oprah has changed into, liking her becomes a different story.

Who Needs Nature?

In a recent essay for American Studies, I question whether cruise ships can be considered progress or not, but cruise ships are just one example of travel that has been seen as progress today. Before now, every summer my family would carpool across America to a National Park and camp in the wilderness. But things have changed in the Finkel household, last winter break, instead of going to a cottage, my family vacationed in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico... the North Shore hot spot. People may consider this to be an economically superior vacation, because not as many people can vacation in such a luxurious place. But I dont think it is.

Yes, Mexico was beautiful, but it was filled with noisy traffic, expensive restaurants, and typical tourist sites. If you don't make reservations months before you go, you can't go whale watching, zip lining, or get a hotel. So every day you have a set schedule with times you need to leave by. This can become stressful and brings me back to think of Thoreau's idea to "Simplify, simplify, simplify!"

Thoreau's idea of a good vacation would probably be what my family originally did. Everyday we would wake up and go hiking to new places and at night we would make campfires and smores. It was simple, and if you maybe didn't want to go hiking one day, you didn't have to... nothing was planned and you were surrounded by nature. Every Labor Day weekend my family continues a tradition of camping with some of my extended family. But now, my extended family has made progress in their camping experience by purchasing a "pop up tents"... my family comments on these as "woosy tents." While we make hot dogs over the camp fire, my aunts and uncles can use their microwave, or even take a quick shower in their tent. By isolating themselves in a pop-up tent they are actually using more energy and harming the environment than they are being surrounded by it!

So yes, resorts, cruises and campers/pop-up tents may be seen as higher class and progress in our traveling days, is it? Each of these travel aids or spots have actually isolated people from nature and the calm serenity of it that originally drew people away from the hustle and bustle of work to vacation. I dont think that it's progress, and a lot of the time, I think it's silly, expensive, and wasteful.

So you want something simple?

Today, my dad and I took a small trip over to ABT to pick up a broken receiver of ours. Of course, my dad couldn't just leave after that. He just had to look at some tvs for my grandma's new apartment. We had a customer service man guide us through the aisles of televisions while my dad explained the situation. The moment my father said that it was for his mom, the man helping us replied, "So you want something simple?"

Immediately, little Mrs. Logan and Mr. Lawler appeared on my shoulders filling my head with questions influenced by Emerson. Technology today has been said to be improved, which it certainly has, and one thing that it has been trying to maintain is simplicity. What if, in reply to the TV guy's question, my dad just replied, "No, I want something really complicated"? It seems silly to think that anyone would respond that way (my dad didn't, by the way), which I think represents human nature's need for simplicity.

In today's top notch technology world, we still want things that are easy to navigate. To many teenagers, having an iPod, cell phone and lap top makes life more simple. They are typically easy to use, portable, and connects us with anything at any time. So would Emerson be proud?

Throughout the centuries, morals change, and certainly, our view on the environment and nature has skewed from our ancestors. To Emerson and Thoreau, nature was equal to simplicity. Today, we feel a stronger need to be in urban affairs with well paying jobs to get by, and many people have summer homes in nature to escape to that simple life. However, while not on vacation, the technology we have represents our need for easy, simple things that wont get us all riled up. Ipods, cell phones and lap tops display our desire for materialism, but they also show that we need simplicity or else we would do without the technology.

I am sure that Emerson and Thoreau are not proud of our conformist society that relies on technology, but even when looking at technology, there is no denying that humans are always searching for simplicity Emerson and Thoreau discuss.