Oh, Oprah.

Oprah!

My husband just sent me this forward, so I feel like I should probably comment on the matter. He wrote, "did you see this already?" and I just wanted to flail my arms about and maybe kick a little. YES I have heard already.

Oprah! Vegan!

Let's back it up a little. I have a not exactly love-hate but more like admiration-irritation relationship with Oprah, as does, I assume, the rest of the country. She does a lot of good. A lot. She's also filthy rich and well-appointed so she'd better do a lot of good. Still, I understand that she gets too much grief, some of it from me.

When Oprah started a book club and started putting her little "O" sticker on the front cover of so many of my favorite books, I got a little defensive. But still, let's read, America!

When Oprah ran a marathon in 4 hours and 29 minutes, I got a little defensive. I can do that, I said to myself. "If Oprah can do it..." the familiar refrain echoed through so many of our training runs that season. People even had shirts heralding her finishing time or something like "Beat Oprah." Note: P.Diddy actually did set out to beat Oprah and succeeded. As the training runs got longer, and we all got slower, the 4:29 pace seemed to be quickly slithering away from us. "Well, sure, she had a staff of dozens training her, cooking for her, advising her, etc. If I had her staff then sure, I'd be able to do a 4:29 marathon, blah blah blah" became our new refrain. I missed her finishing time by exactly 15 minutes, but because 4:44 (and 16 seconds) was still a respectable finishing time and you know how I am with the awkward compliment-taking skills, I quickly summoned Oprah to deflect a little. "Next time I'll hire a personal trainer and maybe I'll beat Oprah?"

Oprah always just sort of symbolized The Masses to me. Whatever Oprah does, The Masses will follow. And I'm no longer obscure and angst-ridden for loving that formerly-obscure but still angst ridden book that nobody had heard of before the O Sticker. And that, technically, is the only side effect of Oprah.

But! Visiting Farm Sanctuary! Going vegan (temporarily)! My own going-vegan story is almost as Hollywoody and gimicky, but I just don't get paid as much nor do I inspire millions to do the same. But with a personal staff...! I kid. But maybe she read my blog when I decided to try veganism for 30 days but kept going for 4 years! "If Julia can do it!" she said to her producer one afternoon as she strained her eyes to read my annoying font, and then she tried to subscribe to my RSS feed so that she would remember who inspired her to go vegan for a few weeks, but couldn't figure out how to do it so she gave up and forgot all about me.

Anyway, it's officially time for me to Give Oprah Credit. Go vegan, my friends. Not because Oprah and her personal chef and personal nutritionist can do it, but because someone reputable and non-PETA-y is finally shedding light on some serious environmental and ethical consequences associated with raising animals for food.

Rhubarb wheat-free crepes for breakfast? Maybe not, but hopefully The Masses will now be more likely to think about clearing a space on their plates for plants. While reading an angst-ridden, gorgeously-cover-ed novel. While stretching before their long run.