Why "Favorite Things" is OK again

A few years ago, I got annoyed with Oprah's "Favorite Things" show. You know, the show where she gives away chocolates and creams and super-soft robes and refrigerators with TVs and internet access? The show where everyone in the audience screams and jumps like 9-year-olds at a Hannah Montana concert?

I thought, "Why this focus on things? Your Best Life is not about things!"

Then, in 2006, Oprah abandoned the Favorite Things show in favor of doling out $1000 to each member of the audience. Their mission was to do something charitable with it--to pay it forward. Wonderful! Lady O was back in my good graces!

This year, however, she returned to the original Favorite Things show. I was disappointed, angry, upset. I watched the screaming frenzy over KitchenAid with a scowl on my face. "Materialism at its worst," I thought.

But then, Oprah explained why she loves doing the Favorite Things show. I'd recap, but her quote is perfect:

"The truth is, I realize that a panini maker cannot change your life. Most people never won anything or got anything in their whole lives for free. So what it does is, is it creates a level of excitement and hopeful energy for you that you believe good things can happen. And good things do. And so in that way, you are changed. You are not changed by the things, but you are changed by the experience of it all."

The woman has boundless wisdom!