The Truth is Out There...On Oprah!

There’s a story about twin sisters who had an alcoholic father. As adults, one became alcoholic herself, and the other never touched a drop. When interviewed and asked about the people they had become, the twins, remarkably, gave the same response:

“With a father like that, is it any wonder?”

The same experience—two different views. One chooses to use her tragic experience as an excuse; the other sees it as a mission statement for her life—NOT to repeat history!

Sojourner Truth and Oprah Winfrey are two women who also knew how to respond to tragedy, and though they were born almost 150 years apart, they have much in common:

Tragic Beginnings

Isabella Baumfree (Sojourner Truth) was born into slavery and remained a slave for 50 years. She had twelve brothers and sisters, few of whom she ever knew. Most were split up and sold as slaves to different plantation owners. As an adult, she experienced even more loss. She was forced by one of her masters to marry another slave, and many of their children were sold off as slaves as well.

Oprah Winfrey had a rough start to life as well. Her parents split up when she was young, and at age nine, she went to live with her mother. There, she was sexually abused—first, by an older cousin, and then later by others throughout her childhood. When it became too much to bear, she ran away, was found, and was sent to live with her father.

The Right Attitude

Both of these women had reasons to live a victim’s life—blaming the past for their problems. And who would blame them? Slavery for 50 years? Repeated rape? That’s enough to forever damage the strength to survive of most people.

Sojourner and Oprah are not most people.

Their attitudes are like that of the second twin—I want to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else! That’s my mission in life!