The Path Made Clear: Discovering Your Life's Direction and Purpose(24)

TREVOR NOAH


TREVOR NOAH: You’ve been to Soweto. You’ve seen how we live there.

OPRAH: Yes.

TREVOR: The weird thing is, I always say to people, “When you’re poor, being poor sucks. But being poor together makes it a lot better.” Right? Because you’re in it together. And it doesn’t discount the fact that you don’t have much. But then you start to enjoy the things that you do have. And that is each other. And so we laughed. We enjoyed ourselves. We had something that sometimes you don’t have when you have too much. And that is the ability to focus on the human beings around you.





WILLIAM PAUL YOUNG


OPRAH: We live in this world where we’re just all looking for more and more and more. We’re looking for more things to fill us up and more things to make us whole. But you say the opposite of more is enough.

WILLIAM PAUL YOUNG: Yes. And that really came to fruition in dealing with the loss of everything financial in my life.

OPRAH: You lost everything because of what, business investments?

PAUL: Yeah. And stupidity back in the day. So, I have all these men friends in my life who have really brought healing to my soul. Right? So I call ’em up and I say, “Look, I know you love us. Here’s our financial situation. I know you love my family. You’re guys. You like to fix things. Please. Please. Don’t rescue me from this. Because you’re probably going to be interfering with what God is doing in my heart.”

OPRAH: So you let yourself fall?

PAUL: I allowed myself to fall into trust. And that’s when we learned that the opposite of more is enough.

OPRAH: Most people would have said, “Could you loan me the money? I promise this won’t happen again if you only would help me.”

PAUL: I know.

OPRAH: That is so profound. Because I’m the person who a lot of people come to and ask, “Could you help me out? If you could only do this.” And what I have learned is, money never saves people.

PAUL: You’re absolutely right.

OPRAH: It only delays whatever was already waiting for you. Because you have created the situation based upon the way you’ve handled or managed your life. That’s why what you just said is such a big aha revelation. By writing the check, I have blocked people from receiving whatever lessons they needed to learn.

PAUL: Right. Because they think that money will give them the control that will conquer their fear.

OPRAH: Oh, my God. That is so profound for me.

PAUL: And it was profound for us. Suddenly joy dropped on us like a ton of bricks. And we had nothing.





CHAPTER TEN


HOME


You already know.

—Oprah




Throughout my life (and I bet yours, too), certain works of literature and film have completely changed the lens through which I see the world.

This list is long for me, but there are two classics in particular that I treasure.

I was in my early years of high school, living with my mother in Milwaukee, when a librarian made a recommendation that would change me forever. She noticed that I checked out five books each visit, and said, “If you like reading these kinds of books, you might like To Kill a Mockingbird.”

She was right.

The moment I picked it up, I was entranced. The story of Boo Radley, Scout, and Atticus Finch is probably the reason I started a book club—because it was one of the first books that I wanted everyone around me to read. I was drawn to Scout’s spirit. I felt a kinship with her curiosity and admired that despite her age, young Scout knew exactly who she was and what she believed. I felt emboldened by Scout. At the time, I was awakening to the idea of racism, just like her. And her eyes were opening to the complex realities of the world, just like mine.

I also wanted the kind of relationship Scout had with her father, Atticus, especially when she called him by his first name. Many years after I’d read the book, I found myself at a luncheon seated next to Gregory Peck, who portrayed Atticus in the movie version of the book. The only words I could think to say were, “So, how’s Scout?” Mr. Peck was gracious and answered my question about his costar who played the little girl. “Well,” he said, “that was forty years ago, so she’s okay.”

To me, Scout was as powerful a character that day as she was the first time I opened the book and then saw her come to life in the movie. A part of Scout will reside in me for the rest of my life.

It was the plight of another strong-willed girl, in one of the most beloved films of all time, that unlocked an early spiritual awakening for me.

I was seven or eight years old when I figured out that The Wizard of Oz was more than a story about a bump on the head and a fantastical dream. The moment I realized that the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion were actually Dorothy’s friends from Auntie Em’s farm, something clicked deep within.

I didn’t have the words to express it at the time, but as I grew into my own path of awareness, I understood The Wizard of Oz to be one of the great spiritual teachings of all time. Dorothy was on what the great philosopher Joseph Campbell so famously called “a hero’s journey.” The Yellow Brick Road represented the path toward her true self. Along the way, she encountered the disempowered parts of herself—the Scarecrow’s wish for a brain, the Tin Man’s desire for a heart, and the Cowardly Lion’s longing for courage.