Sunday, December 24, 2006

Oprah's Give-Away

I guess every year Oprah gives her entire audience something truly nifty. Last year, I think it was a car. This year she announced to the group that she was giving them all $1,000 gift certificates. They all hooted and hollered until they heard what the condition of the card was. It would have to be given away.

I would have loved to be inside the minds of those audience members who were facing financial difficulties at the moment. There must have been a split second (or longer) when they felt disappointment, but then I think there was excitement. In the follow up show, it was a joy to hear the stories of what those audience members did with their money. Some used it as seed money and ended up collected hundreds of thousands of dollars. Others took a more simple approach and simple gave it away to deliverymen as tips.

While watching I was once again impressed by Oprah. Say what you want about her, she does wonderful things with her fame and wealth. Obviously, there were many who benefitted directly from the money which was great. But what I thought was truly impressive was that many in that audience experienced the pleasure of giving and would continue to do so. They learned that it felt great to give which means they'll continue to give.

I've read recently that Oprah is developing a reality show which continues the philanthropical theme and I look forward to feeling all warm and fuzzy while watching it.

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