29.11.08

Just say Yes.

I'll admit it -- I'm a card-carrying member of the Oprah army. I love her show, her magazine, her puppehs(the most beautiful Golden Retrievers I've ever seen, next to my Potter dogger).

Ok, some of her celebrity interviews are a little um...cloyingly sweet ("John Travolta's heeeeeeere!!!"). I get jealous and pissy at every "My Favorite Things" show; I want a new car, gold leaf chocolates and swanky jammies too, dammit. But I love Oprah. When she broke out of her comfort zone and went balls-to-the-wall for Obama -- that's when I re-enlisted.

Really, she had me at "O." Her magazine is smart, beautiful and never tells me how a giant ball can make my butt bouncy, or runs features like, '70 Sex Moves Involving Forest Creatures He's Dying for You to Try.'

I'm not exaggerating when I say this article set my life on a new course. It's a piece written by Tina Fey, in which she describes her "Aha Moment." For Fey, it was realizing that one of her improv. teachings ("Say yes to everything.") had become her approach to life; once she began saying "yes," instead of giving reasons why she shouldn't/couldn't try something -- well, we know the rest.

How many times do we say No to something we are secretly dying to try? What reasons to we give ourselves? Any of these?

I'm too old.
What if I'm not good at it?
People will laugh.
I don't have time.
I'm supposed to devote myself to my kids, not mySELF.
I'm afraid.

And really, what's the worst that could happen if we do say Yes? We may need to revise the plan, but as Tina writes, "The fun is always on the other side of a yes."


2 comments:

  1. Isn't this a Jim Carrey movie? ;)

    Tina Fey is great. She's a smart geek. I want glasses like her's.

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  2. The message has more gravitas coming from Dame Tina Fey, don't ya think? Props to Jim Carrey, but Tina had me at "Aha!"

    Her glasses are TOTALLY cool.

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