Spiritual Life - Essay Example

? Spiritual Life by November 24, Spiritual Life “May the force be with you!” This quote, stated by Luke Skywalker at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, one of the famous Star Wars trilogies, is amongst the most popular movie quotes of the day. The force that Luke is referring to in this quote is the, “binding, metaphysical and ubiquitous power in the fictional universe of the Star Wars galaxy created by George Lucas” (“Wikipedia”). This force pushes Luke and any fellow Jedi, or any pursing to be a Jedi, on to be something greater than they originally were, and it usually does so by having them confront and overcome some of their greatest fears and weaknesses. This “force” in a way mimics the “grace” that is defined by Scott Peck in the third and final section of his book, A Road Less Traveled. Grace, according to Peck is something that originates outside of human consciences that pushes man to confront their weaknesses and become something greater than they were, and in this way it aids in their spiritual growth. He states that it, “somehow pushes us to choose the more difficult path whereby we can transcend the mire and muck into which we are so often born” (266). In this way Peck views adversity or the unpleasant circumstances which some find themselves in, not as unfortunate happenstance, but as a way to grow and to become something greater than they could have been otherwise. Examples of this can be seen all over our world today. People, who have been born into poverty and arise to become millionaires, people who come from abused homes only to become world famous physiologists. One such famous person, who was born into the most unpleasant circumstances and has arisen to become the wealthiest and most powerfully influential women in America, is Oprah. After taking a look at Oprah’s early life, the testing and trials she went through, her transcendence, and the lessons she learned, we can accurately view Peck’s version of grace, or the idea of a ‘force’, in action. First we will take a look into Oprah’s early life, the so called ‘mire and muck’ years. She was born to an unwed teenage mother in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Her mother could not afford to care for her without work, so she left Oprah in the care of her grandmother and went to find work in the North. Oprah’s grandmother lived on a primitive farm, but she managed to teach Oprah how to read at the early age of three and took her to church faithfully. Oprah excelled at her grandmothers house, and would even recite scriptures in front of the church, much to the congregations delight. When Oprah was six her mother, who had finally found steady employment as a housemaid, took her to live in Milwaukee. Her mother had to work long hours at her new job so this left Oprah alone, most of the time, in their inner city apartment. It was alone in this apartment that Oprah was reportedly sexually abused by many male relatives and other visitors, until she finally ran away from home at the age of thirteen. Upon running away from home, she was sent to a juvenile detention center but was denied admission because the beds were filled. So by the young age of fourteen Oprah found herself on her own, living on the streets. She was self proclaimed sexually promiscuous during this time, and she gave birth to a baby boy who died in infancy. Most would stop at this point of reading into Oprah’s early life, if they did not know of her, and guess that she went on to lead a meaningless life of prostitution or worse, got addicted to drugs and died at a young age. Her early life had given her nothing but hardship. According to Peck, however, it is by going down this road less traveled, or the road of hardship that enables a person to transcend. So it would be not what Oprah had gone through that became the defining factor in Oprah’s life but how she handled it that was the true test of what she could become. Now we will uncover how her life began to change for the better, yet still some of the testing and trails that came her way. After the death of her son, Oprah went to go live with her father in Nashville, Tennessee. Oprah’s father was a strict disciplinarian who expected to see only the best from her. It was here, in this structured environment, that her life took a turn of the better. She started making good grades in school, and she even went on to win Miss Black Tennessee. After winning this beauty pageant she was offered an air job at WVOL, which, was a radio station serving the African American community in Nashville. She then received a full scholarship to Tennessee State University, however, shortly after she started she realized her career was already taking off so she dropped out and pursued a job at a local television station as a reporter and anchor. Though her life seemed to be taking on an outward turn for the better, she still was dealing with residual emotion scares from her childhood. She found herself in an affair with a married man, and could not seem to make herself happy. Her career continued to prosper despite her inner turmoil and she soon found herself hosting her very own talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show. This talk show, though, still much like other talk shows of the day, became an instant hit. It wasn’t until she started dealing with her emotional issues, however, and brought that to the air in 1990, that she became a legend. Until this point, even though her life seemed to be going well to the outside world, Peck would still deem her in the testing and trails stage. This is due to the fact that she was hiding her past and emotions, instead of confronting them and using them to transcend her situation. In one of the simplest yet profound statements of his book Peck states, “Life is difficult. This is the great truth, one of the greatest truths–it is a great truth because once we see this truth, we transcend it” (“Theme by Revolution”). It was in early 1990 that Oprah started realizing this truth. She started to see her past and her life as the difficulty that was the driving force in enabling her to become a better person. She also realized that it was allowing her and would allow her to facilitate helping people beyond what she could have done without it. Through this realization she started embracing and overcoming her past in front of the world to allow it to help not only herself but other to grow out of their situations, and become more than they could have been. She began using her show to emphasize spiritual values, healthy living, and self-help. She started telling her story and allowing the pain of what had happened in her past push her forward to a future greater than any other talk show host had before. From there Oprah went on to star in many featured films, allowing the pain she had suffered to enable her to act in the most heart reaching of performances, which eventually landed her an Oscar. She also used her past and her current potion of power to campaign to have national database of child abusers enacted on behalf of the National Child protection Act. President Clinton signed the “Oprah Bill” into law in 1993. She has used her show and her life to help the less fortunate, talk about important issues, and empower people across the nation. Peck concludes the section on Grace by stating, “The miracles described indicate that our growth as human beings is being assisted by a force other than our conscious will” (281). According to Peck most would not choose to go down a harder road. As humans we innately want to go down the easiest path possible. However, it is through the hardships that we grow as humanity. Peck says, therefore, there has to be a force greater than our conscious will that is directing us down the harder path and toward an enlightened ending. Oprah demonstrated this perfectly through her life. She, by no means would have chosen for herself the hardships she faced in early life, however, it is directly due to the hardships that Oprah faced in her past and her ability and attitude toward finally facing and overcoming them that made her the powerful influential woman she is today. Peck would say that it is for this reason that the force or grace brings us to these difficult circumstances. Let’s assume, for instance, Oprah had been left at her grandmothers. She would have led an ordinary lower middle class life. She would have gone through school, she may have by some chance still become a TV personality, however, she would not have been able to touch and empower so many with her story. She would most likely not have had the drive or passion to enact the Oprah Bill, which has protected many children. She would not have been able to use her hurt to act in the movies that she did. In essence she would just be another ordinary woman. It was the bad circumstances she went through and how she overcame them that made her into the icon she is today. According to Peck, however, it is not just enough to deal with the circumstances of life, some how a person must find a way to overcome that circumstance. If Oprah, for instance, had not started overcoming her past she may not have changed her show in 1990. She still would have had a talk show but it would never have reached the potential that it did. In the same way, Peck says that it is through overcoming a circumstance or an obstacle that man has the ability to grow internally and reach a potential that would have otherwise been impossible. After looking Oprah’s early life, the testing and trials she went through, her transcendence, and the lessons she learned, we have accurately seen Peck’s view of grace and transcendence in action. Just in the way Luke from star wars had to overcome many personal obstacles brought his way by the force to become Jedi, Peck would say that grace brings people personal obstacles so that they can transform into a better, more powerful version of themselves. Oprah definitely transcended the ‘mire and muck’ mentioned by Peck and proved in her life that it was through working through some of the most difficult personal trials one can imagine that she became what she is today. In the same way Peck says it is through grace that humanity is brought to the difficult situations in life, and once people realize this they can use the situations to become more than they have or could ever have been. Works Cited "Force (Star Wars)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, 28 Mar. 2011. Web. 28 Apr 2011. . "M. Scott Peck’s Road Less Traveled: Life is NOT Difficult." Theme by Revolution 2009: n. pag. Web. 28 Apr 2011. . Peck, M. Scott. The Road Less Traveled. 25 Anniversary Ed. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002. 266,281. Print. Read More