WOW Word-Of-the-Week #335: Believe

January 3, 2011 by · Comments Off on WOW Word-Of-the-Week #335: Believe 

Believe – personal faith, confidence, or trust.

Do you believe that the majority of people are inherently good? Do you believe in karma? Do you believe “you are what you think you are?”

During this Holiday Season I saw the word “believe” a lot. Macy’s used it in their print ads. Then Oprah was featured in the Sunday Parade Magazine on December 26th. She is launching her new Cable network, OWN, which stands for the Oprah Winfrey Network.

When asked by the interviewer Lynn Sherr, “What will you perceive as a failure?” Oprah responded by saying, “What will be a failure is if nobody comes and watches this network. What others will perceive as failure is if some shows don’t succeed. I’m concerned about the bigger overall picture: my belief that people are basically good and want to see the good in them reflected through their experiences and the shows that they watch. This is a gamble I’m taking. I believe that the banal state of television, the kind of insipid space that we’re in – that you can have as many channels as we have and not find anything that really interests you – means that to a great extent we’ve lost our way.”

Well, I personally don’t watch much television at all. How about you? I do watch a lot of movies. And if you would have bet me ten years ago that I would be watching and enjoying the Discovery Channel I would have lost! I have only seen the Oprah Show a half a dozen times over the years but always liked her style and content. I certainly like the idea of having the option to watch shows that have some redeeming quality. Not just mindless stuff, which frankly I think most television, is.

What do you think? Do you believe that people are basically good and want to see the good in them reflected through their experiences and the shows that they watch? Do you find that with all the channel options you have you can’t find anything that really interests you?