Let's Ask Oprah -- She's Knows Everything

I can honestly say, I feel an unconventional connection to Oprah. I do not watch her show, but she and I share the same birthday. Strange, but true -- and a good enough reason to check in now and again with what this incredibly powerful woman is thinking and preaching. So was the case this week, when I saw that she had decided to discuss her on-going weight issues in the pages of her magazine, O. It had become a national headline, of course: "Oprah says she is embarrassed by her weight," which made me feel for her. It's bad enough to feel that way -- it must suck to have to admit it to strangers. It also dispelled the myth I do nurture in my mind that if you are childless and wealthy enough, you can either have a team of people who make sure all your needs are met -- or you have all the time in the world to get your own damn needs taken care of.
Having said that though...
I can't help but wonder this: when you have a personal chef -- couldn't there be a lot of thought and care put into the kind of food that is served to you? Thought and care you don't have to invest? Couldn't you have a pre-arrangement in which you say, "I don't care how much I beg don't feed me a double-bacon cheeseburger."? If you have a personal trainer -- don't you have to simply show up and do what he/she says? These folks are paid to listen to bitching and moaning. For those of us who have to drag our asses home at the end of work, collect our kids, then cook the dinner -- Or drag our own sorry carcasses to the gym or the track or the town pool to try and get something like a workout under our belts a couple times a week -- I honestly believe there is only a slim comparison with what makes it tough for a woman like Oprah to feed and exercise her own body.
And yet -- here is what is ultimately interesting to me about the article: Oprah was not content with identifying the issues leading to her weight gain, but nailing down the solution. This also made me worry for her -- I mean, come on -- you sure you got all the answers?
Don't get me wrong, her answer is an valuable one: take care of yourself, make yourself a priority. It has been something I have had to think long and hard about this past year as a result of my own health issues. But one of things I had to learn the hard way -- and I offer to Oprah as a reflection -- is that letting go of our own sense of false power is an important element to self-care. That was hard enough for me to do in my teeny-tiny empire of work and home -- I can imagine it would be far more complex in the Oprah Universe.
In the end, I do not understand why it is true -- but I can only admit it: It's not easy to be Oprah. But listen, honey, our birthday is coming up and I'll bet there must be something nice you can do for yourself -- and I'm sure you've got some dough set aside to pay for it.