Oprah Winfrey

It's sort of the junk food of mattering.

I've been thinking as I was writing this book, I was thinking about the theologian, Henry Nouwen, who talks about the three great lies of our society.

I am what I have.

I am what I do.

I am what people say and think about me.

That is the opposite of mattering.

That is the belief that I do not matter.

My mattering is contingent.

It is contingent on my house.

It's contingent on the number of followers I have.

It's contingent on the sneakers I'm wearing.

It's contingent on all these other things.

She has.

I mean, I've learned so much in our 10 years of lunches and dinners and walks.

She's my mentor.

I'm not her mentor.

I will say if we're gonna talk in mattering terms, I think Ina really showed me how to matter to myself, which is a critical aspect of mattering.

And when you are a parent to three young children and trying to have a career, your needs are often not even on the to-do list.

And so I would go, we would meet for lunch and I would sit down and she would say, okay, so what are you doing for you?

How are you?