The Secret: Two Different Ideas from Two Different People

Actress Betty White was profiled on CBS’s Sunday Morning program today by Katie Couric, and she was asked if she is ever afraid of dying.  At 89 White is the last surviving Golden Girl and the oldest person to ever host Saturday Night Live.

“Oh no,”  she said. “Not at all.  I think of something my mother told me once. That it’s a secret when you’re going to die. Nobody ever knows the answer. And so, when you die you finally know the secret.”  It seems to keep White serene, as she now stars in her fourth hit sitcom and she’s writing a book about Zoos, one of her life’s passions.

Her husband Allan Ludden died in 1981, and the only thing White said she really misses are the pats on the back, the hand holding, and the brief moments of physical contact that mark any committed relationship.

Last night at a party in Holyoke I listened to music played live in a basement. I sat beside a friendly woman who told me her name was Julia and she worked in a hair salon. She had just read a book recommended by a friend called The Secret. Hairstylists often are given lots of suggestions of books to read, she said.

I asked her just what the secret was. She said it was all about visualizing, and writing down the things you want to happen in your life. That simply by writing down the hopes you have, you’ll be manifesting those things in the universe and as the universe does, it will provide. She talked about her current beau, the first time she’s stuck with anyone in years.  She wrote it all down and when she looked back at the hopes she wrote down a year ago, indeed, most of them had come true.