The City That Never Sleeps
|
posted : April 18, 2009
I’m glad I managed to catch Oprah on Hallmark over lunch. Was a calling for me. It really gave me light on something our society tends to hide in the closet. Something we do not feel comfortable talking about out in the open. An issue we judge. We judge the victims. We judge the situation they were caught in. We try to pinpoint a single reason to blame. And yes, I’m talking about drug and alcohol addiction. Oprah chose to bring back Tatum O’Neal who still remains the youngest actor, at the age of 10, to win an Oscar. A child artiste indeed. But also someone who went through a lot of trauma in her childhood. Someone who was inflicted with emotional as well as physical abuse. It really moved me as I heard her share with other addicts how she overcame it. How she has moved on since 2004 when she appeared on Oprah. How she managed to gain strength from surrendering herself to something higher/greater than herself. Well, I’m glad that worked for her. But I wouldn’t say it would work for all. We all draw strength from different things. Sometimes even from oneself. It’s just a matter of how great your conviction is it. Oprah aptly put it as “we pray to lighten the burden, but walk away with the same burden”. When Tatum was asked if she could name a single reason as to why she let herself get caught into pills and alcohol. She couldn’t. I could feel her that moment. As her whole life played in her mind like a recorder. Trying to fish out a single word to answer the question thrown upon her. And she simply put it as she couldn’t establish her footing in the world. She couldn’t find her place in society. Something she deemed herself worth enough for. She just couldn’t find it and got lost along the way. I was actually taken aback how she could have blamed so many external factors which people may easily choose to fault when thrown into similar situations, but she didn’t. She could have easily, very easily but she chose otherwise. Like her tormented childhood, her parents who decided it would be easier walking away, her ex-husband who filed for divorce leaving her with 3 kids to fend for. Yes all of it, this 36 year old Golden Globe winning American actress went through at some point in her life. It was indeed a true awakening for all the addicts out there who just needed to find an anchor to hold on to and rise up. Something to lift them up.
There has been much talk about facebook, twitter of late. Especially in the newspapers. Just a few days back on how a local 15 year old computing freak, has become the top local twitter with almost over 57,000 followers mainly those away from Singapore. They somehow get a sneak peek of life over in the sunny island through this young chap. So this just made me think about how we recognise people as Facebook friends. It’s some sort of an irony especially when you both acknowledge each other as friends in the virtual world. But somehow in person when you meet, you can’t even pluck up a bit of courage to start with a Hello. How ironic indeed! But I’m part of that virtual world also nevertheless. And on a side note, Oprah hoped onto the bandwagon and welcomed her Twitter readers with open arms. And it feels good when something pays off. The feeling is nice. So I just tell myself let me savour the moment till it lasts. I just hope maybe in a week’s time I would get the same feeling. Let’s see! 1 down, 4 to go! |
look at the stars, look how they shine for you.
Any usable chat widget goes in here.