Spiritual Life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Spiritual Life - Essay Example This force pushes Luke and any fellow Jedi, or any pursing to be a Jedi, on to be something greater than they originally were, and it usually does so by having them confront and overcome some of their greatest fears and weaknesses. This â€Å"force† in a way mimics the â€Å"grace† that is defined by Scott Peck in the third and final section of his book, A Road Less Traveled. Grace, according to Peck is something that originates outside of human consciences that pushes man to confront their weaknesses and become something greater than they were, and in this way it aids in their spiritual growth. He states that it, â€Å"somehow pushes us to choose the more difficult path whereby we can transcend the mire and muck into which we are so often born† (266). In this way Peck views adversity or the unpleasant circumstances which some find themselves in, not as unfortunate happenstance, but as a way to grow and to become something greater than they could have been otherw ise. Examples of this can be seen all over our world today. People, who have been born into poverty and arise to become millionaires, people who come from abused homes only to become world famous physiologists. One such famous person, who was born into the most unpleasant circumstances and has arisen to become the wealthiest and most powerfully influential women in America, is Oprah. After taking a look at Oprah’s early life, the testing and trials she went through, her transcendence, and the lessons she learned, we can accurately view Peck’s version of grace, or the idea of a ‘force’, in action.... Oprah’s grandmother lived on a primitive farm, but she managed to teach Oprah how to read at the early age of three and took her to church faithfully. Oprah excelled at her grandmothers house, and would even recite scriptures in front of the church, much to the congregations delight. When Oprah was six her mother, who had finally found steady employment as a housemaid, took her to live in Milwaukee. Her mother had to work long hours at her new job so this left Oprah alone, most of the time, in their inner city apartment. It was alone in this apartment that Oprah was reportedly sexually abused by many male relatives and other visitors, until she finally ran away from home at the age of thirteen. Upon running away from home, she was sent to a juvenile detention center but was denied admission because the beds were filled. So by the young age of fourteen Oprah found herself on her own, living on the streets. She was self proclaimed sexually promiscuous during this time, and she g ave birth to a baby boy who died in infancy. Most would stop at this point of reading into Oprah’s early life, if they did not know of her, and guess that she went on to lead a meaningless life of prostitution or worse, got addicted to drugs and died at a young age. Her early life had given her nothing but hardship. According to Peck, however, it is by going down this road less traveled, or the road of hardship that enables a person to transcend. So it would be not what Oprah had gone through that became the defining factor in Oprah’s life but how she handled it that was the true test of what she could become. Now we will uncover how her life began to change for the better,