Ellen Degeneres at Tulane - UPDATED<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"UPDATE: I initially posted this video without comment because I didn't want to influence anyone's thinking on it. A pal of mine watched and wrote back,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2009\/08\/02\/ellen-degeneres-at-tulane\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ellen Degeneres at Tulane - UPDATED\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"UPDATE: I initially posted this video without comment because I didn't want to influence anyone's thinking on it. 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{"id":11713,"date":"2009-08-02T20:37:28","date_gmt":"2009-08-03T00:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstthings.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/?p=11713"},"modified":"2017-03-13T17:16:28","modified_gmt":"2017-03-13T17:16:28","slug":"ellen-degeneres-at-tulane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2009\/08\/02\/ellen-degeneres-at-tulane\/","title":{"rendered":"Ellen Degeneres at Tulane – UPDATED"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

UPDATE:<\/strong> I initially posted this video without comment because I didn\u2019t want to influence anyone\u2019s thinking on it.<\/p>\n

A pal of mine watched and wrote back, \u201cWhy do I feel emotional pain after watching that?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if she meant it as a good, salutary sort of pain, or a bad one, but I had found the video moving, also, and I think it\u2019s because Degeneres is nakedly honest there, about her whole life and her self; I don\u2019t know if we see that sort of honesty anymore, from too many people. She\u2019s very courageous and forthright, and I admire that a lot.<\/p>\n

And too, I think she spoke a great deal of plain truth<\/em>. Polonius advised his son, \u201cto thy own self be true\u201d but Degeneres spells out the loss and pain that can come from doing exactly that. The truth \u2013 the whole truth \u2013 is one part courage, one part discipline and two parts sacrifice; the great paradox of life is that one must be willing to sacrifice one\u2019s very self in order to wholly own who one is. Rather like the gospel admonition: \u201cwho would lose his life will save it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There comes a moment in all of our lives when we get a sense of what we are born for.<\/strong> Degeneres got it when she wrote that letter to God. Whether she realized it or not, she had a blessing<\/em> at that moment; a revelation. In her exquisite pain she wrote the whole, honest truth; she revealed herself or, in another sense, gave herself up. And in response she got the truth back at her<\/em>, an answer, in the form of a \u201cshowing\u201d (or a knowing if you will) of what her life would be.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard many people talk about the crystalline moment when they suddenly \u201cknew\u201d something or \u201cenvisioned\u201d something in their lives and it turned out precisely as it was seen or known. In fact, something very similar happened in my life, when I -also in a moment of huge pain and confusion- spoke to God from the depths of my heart, and rose to my feet knowing with certainty that my life had a plan and a purpose; that plan and purpose began unfolding within hours, and continues to unfold, instruct and reveal itself to me.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a very intense thing, the truth, and often painful. It\u2019s one of the reasons, I think, that some people prefer having a \u201cchoice\u201d as to living or dying (or allowing others to live or die); so many people want the biggest, most intensely painful and real<\/em> events of their lives (childbirth and death, for instance) to be tempered and made painless. But that is living life in a sort of anesthetized state, feeling nothing but \u201cfine,\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

When every blow is softened for us, how do we ever get to the deep down bones-naked truths of our lives, where love and pain reside and joy somehow fits itself between the two<\/a>? The place that can only be answered and consoled, finally, by Truth, itself?<\/p>\n

This is a deceptively powerful little speech by Degeneres; it is a challenge to go deep<\/em>.<\/p>\n

At the deepest part of our bones, we find our blood-and-tissue regenerating marrow. At the deepest part of our bodies, we find our material essences.
\nAt the deepest part our hearts, in the abysses of our own spirits, we find our whole, revealed selves.<\/p>\n

Jesus made the same challenge 2000 years ago: \u201ccast your nets out into the deep.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is where you will find your abundance.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"