The folks I watched the show with today were put off by Oprah's treatment of the homeless man's reckless spending of the $100,000 he was given as part of a voyeuristic, marginally cruel, documentary experiment. When Oprah seemed in disbelief that he handled the cash so badly, I wanted to yell at the TV: "He's homeless! How could you expect him to make rational financial decisions?! He doesn't know how to deal with taking care of himself, let alone money! He's HOOOMELESSSS!" But because I was with other people, I just pursed my lips to show my irritation and sighed heavily.
In other news, I created my vision board as you can see in this photo. I'm embarrassed to admit this to you, but I'm slightly giddy about it. I always get a little high from finishing crafty things. Maybe I should have performed "Living Martha" this year instead! My collage definitely represents my vision for my future. I was surprised I wasn't drawn to anything material - but rather to health, clarity, and peace. If you have any questions about what you see, let me know!And I promise I'll let you know when all my wildest dreams come true.
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25 comments:
NOOOOOO! NO Living Martha!
Martha is fine and all - but all the creating would have driven even a relatively crafty person like me CRAZY! And don't forget that both Martha and Oprah have entire staffs of people that take care of a lot of the daily tasks of show maintenance for them. VERY rarely I supposed does Martha create all the stuff that she shares on the show - beyond the little project right in front of her at the moment.
Anyway - I will admit that even after seeing the original show - I missed the rerun of it- I was confused and frustrated by it as well. But it was one of those social experiments that rarely make sense to begin with.
Garsy
hey garsy, it's SO true. martha has elves in a workshop making and testing everything before she touches it. if i even tried to do this, i might end up in a rubber room. xoLO
I've been following LO from th beginning but this is my first comment...
lower left of the picture... Bill Murray!?
hee hee. dani, good eye! ok, so, i LOVE bill murray and would love to write something he'd want to act in one day! xoLO
I'm still chuckling at Bill Murray, but I have a few comments -
I think Living Martha would be fun, and tasty, but a bit boring since she doesn't "proclaim" a lot. Oprah definitely seems to think she knows best for everyone else.
And I tend to watch Oprah about twice a year, but I saw today's episode and I was SO IRRITATED at how harsh Oprah was. Here she was doing an episode about how people who function very well in society get all messed up when they get loads of money and then she's harsh on the HOMELESS man who gets messed up with it? I mean, yeah, the movie is probably an interesting social experiment, but is she really that shocked and appalled that he f-ed it up? When you have absolutely nothing, 100,000 dollars isn't really that much - he has a big hole to ...
Well, I could go on and on. But yeah, I was irritated, too.
Wow. Chastising a homeless man for making bad financial decisions with a gift of $100k. How could this have been anything short of willfully pursuing a failure to scapegoat?
Well, deep down you must know you aren't spiritually ready for athunderstorm of material things to rain down on you. Better to go for a yoga body until your spirit is smart enough to not flush your money down the toilet. I, on the other hand, am so spiritually ready for wealth I've gone beyond the vision board and started wearing money in odd places so it's always close to me and my spirit. You know, like cash in my underdrawers and quarters over my nipples. Stuff like that. I expect to be Oprah-rich any day now. Good luck with your health, but I gots to get with the wealth.
I think it looks great! That has to be inspiring.
Love your vision board. I do collages like that on occasion to capture where I am in a moment in time. I love looking back at them. Never thought about doing a "vision board" like that. Interesting idea.
Oh, and I hope no issues of "O" were harmed in the making of your vision board?! Hahah! Just kidding!
$100K is barely enough to buy a house. That goes back to the whole giving a thirsty man wine.
Enough of that. Living Martha - now that would be a challenge. At least Oprah admits that she doesn't always have her shiz together.
I hadn't seen the set up of the homeless man episode, but I'm stunned by the inhumanity of doing such a thing. A truly spiritually evolved person would understand that what he did with the money was of no consequence. When you've given it, you've given it away wholeheartedly. You don't maintain strings. If I could invoke someone spiritually involved in this discussion, Jesus says we are to give of our first fruits, our best stuff, not our worn-outs and leftovers.
And Living Martha! A great idea! I support you all the way! Martha and Oprah are perfectionists, and share similarities in their business abilities, but the experience of the differences between their approaches would be something that you could uniquely speak about. Oprah wants you to live your best life, but she can't decide if that is spiritual or material. Martha expects you to live your best life, and she knows that's material and physical. There's one best way to organize a wrapping paper closet. There's one best way to have a garden. There's one best way to do laundry. Unspoken, but coloring all Martha's activities and projects, is that if you do all these things perfectly, it will bring you spiritual peace and harmony because you have mastered your physical realm.
If I'm a *really* bad person in this life, in my next I have to Live Martha. I can't think of a less creative, more stifling existence. [shudder]
Using a homeless man as a social experiment seems especially heartless. Then, bringing him on national television so that Oprah can publicly 'tsk tsk' him just leaves me speechless. The whole episode saddened me deeply and was very difficult to watch. Um, humanity anyone?
On a lighter note, LO... didn't know you liked Bill Murray! Ah, the things one learns!
~LO's Mom
I saw this ep when it originally aired and I remember that feeling of outrage. What I don't remember was this: was he just given the money OR was he given the money AND given some schooling in money management, budgetting, etc?
I hate to say this, but $100K isn't THAT much money anymore. Yes, I know that $100K is more than the average family makes in a year, but it doesn't have the same buying power it did even 5 years ago. In the major metropolitan areas, it won't buy a house, even a crappy one when you factor in recurring property taxes and routine maintenance costs.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that Oprah isn't simply on a higher spiritual plane than those of us who won't make her annual income in our entire lives. I would guess that as she started to become the Oprah she is now, she brought in people to help her manage her money or had mentors who worked with her.
Are any of us simply born with expert budgetting and money management skills (I'm not talking about investing type skills, I'm referring to the basic money management skills we all need daily) or do we learn from our parents and by educating ourselves?
If the homeless guy had no access to any sort of training and opportunities to learn about money, what did Oprah or anyone else expect?
Forget all of Suze Orman's super duper financial investing advice for a sec. Maybe Oprah should do a show at a more basic level once in awhile. How to balance your checkbook and budgetting. What exactly a 401k is and how to get the most from it. What an IRA is and how to get the most from it. Not selling stuff, but giving actual financial eductation. I would LOVE it if just once, she gave her whole audience free financial planning or money management for 6 months or something like that rather than a new refrigerator.
Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.
The refrigerator is a today freebie. Money management knowledge is a lifetime gift.
Sorry for the rant.
kate, it's true. maybe the rules for that project would have to be - i'd do anything she says is a "good thing." actually - i'm being facetious - i really don't think a human being could complete all those projects without a staff.
mrssoersdal, yeah, it was sad. i think oprah does sometime feel she can shame people who don't live up to her standards.
jurl, you're hilarious. just don't go thru any metal detectors at the airport with all that coinage!
theparakeet, thanks much! my centerpiece is an image of a nice, straight spine. as i have a double major scoliosis, that seemed to be the most important vision to keep front and center.
judes, you are awesome. no - i did not cut up my O's. it was tempting, i'll tell you, but they're unscathed!
laurajeanette, yup. all i can say is agree. that phrase "give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime" seems to apply here, huh?
paula, be forewarned, if i EVER master my physical realm, it could be a sign of the apocalypse. or at the very least, equal to the phrase "when pigs fly."
robin troy, i KNOW!! it would be brutal. i'd turn into an automaton!
hi mom - i adore bill murray. remember - i loved Lost and Translation and you couldn't stand it? and yet i still love you. go figure.
LMS, great minds think alike - i just used the old "fish" addage above! i believe that what the documentary really showed is that some people really want to be voyeurs in the misery of others. and you know - i think it'd be great to do a "finances for newbies" type show. i sure could learn from it.
xoLO
yes yes yes! Next year do Living Martha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I watched the show and I didn't find Oprah to be even the slightest bit judgmental or disparaging of the homeless man. If this experiment is to have any value, I think you need to try to watch her show from an objective perspective instead of through an anti-Oprah lens. It's very easy to find signs of Oprah being a bad person if you spend each show specifically looking for them. It's called the confirmatory bias; we always see that which confirms our prejudice & thus can never overcome it.
michelle! you are so sadistic! if i do it, i'll decopage you a thank you gift for your encouragement! :)
pinktissue, i do appreciate you taking time to write. but i have a question - if i had the same positive reaction as you, would you have thought i was being more "objective?" positive does not = neutral. i'm being honest, pink, that's my mission here. analysis, questioning, testing, honesty. it seems you're a fan of oprah which is great - please keep coming back and commenting.
best,
LO
I hope all your dreams come true...except for the one where you become a skeleton doing yoga. I think that would be creepy, especially to kids.
But otherwise...I hope they all come true
I hope all your dreams come true...well, except for the one where you become a skeleton who does yoga. That would be scary...especially to kids.
Anyway, can't wait to see if all those other vision board dreams come true.
GO LIVING OPRAH!
-Qraig
Look that guy wasn't dumb or mentally challenged and had relatives in close proximity. And he is a white man over 40, not a mom on the streets with her kids. He blew 1/3 of it on a car without first securing a place to live. Shoot I was thinking how foolish he was to have done that - didn't his sister even say that? he's had certain advantages just being a white male - so sorry [not] it should not have gone unasked why he made the choices he made. If someone gave me $100K and I was living on the streets I would not buy a 30K car! I'd get an apartment first. He seemed to prefer living on the streets instead of dealing with his issues. No sympathy is necessary.
qraig! your comment made me laugh so much, i read it to my family, who also laughed hysterically. ok - so i don't want to be a skeleton doing yoga, i promise! that would be extreme weight loss, which i don't advocate. the deal is that i have a pretty major spinal problem and i was using that picture to depict a straight, healthy spine. VERY VERY VERY funny, though. thanks for the laugh. i needed it!
heartsandflowers - oh i don't think he warranted sympathy, i just didn't find his mis-spending of the money surprising or as unexpected as Oprah seemed to indicate. i think he was set up to fail because the writing was on the wall with his behavior. trust me, with as tight as my budget is, i won't shed any tears for someone who spends in such a kneejerk fashion. before i'd buy a gazillion dollar truck, i'd fall on my knees and gratitude - and so would my college loan company.
xoLO
Livingoprah, why weren't you surprised that a homeless man would make unwise decisions? Do you assume all homeless people are dumb? For Oprah to have treated this man's poor choices with less surprise because he is homeless would have been condescending and patronizing. I'm glad she treated him like anybody else who had blown $100K.
oy glassroom! did you see the choices this man had made before the experiment? i based my opinions on his actions and behavior before he had the money in his hands. what did you think of the show? best, LO
You are hilarious and awesome. One more stellar blog to suck away hours at work...
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