Oprah doesn’t give out cars, just reflection on last show

• Reprints

Updated: October 16, 2011 12:16AM

On the final episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Oprah admitted that she’d always wanted to be a teacher — and went on to host a master class of what she’s learned over the last 25 years.

“From Day 1, Chicago, you took me in,” said Oprah, showing a clip from her first show, featuring two Chicago Bears players teaching her how to make chili — even though the budget didn’t allow for a stove or even heat.

“I wanted to encourage you to be more of yourself,” she said, “just as you cheered me on and occasionally complained about my outfits, my big hair and earrings the size of napkins. I now see you had every reason to, but at the time you couldn’t tell me nothing. I thought I was styling pretty cute.”

There were no major surprises — the two-episode extravaganza at the United Center was “a love intervention on steroids for me,” she said.

“You will not be getting a car or a tree,” she clarified, just quiet reflection. “This last hour is really about me saying, thank you. It is my love letter to you.”

Among the wisdom Oprah shared:

◆ Your real job in life is to figure out what your calling is, and then do it.

“You can help somebody, you can listen, you can forgive, you can heal, you have the power to change someone’s life. Start embracing the life that is calling you, and use your life to serve the world.”

◆ Take responsibility for your life. “You are responsible for the energy you create for yourself and the energy you bring to others.”

◆ You don’t have to depend on anyone else. “‘Jerry Maguire’ was just a movie. No one completes you.”

◆ There is a common thread that runs through all our pain and suffering: the feeling of unworthiness. “We block our own blessings because we don’t feel worthy enough. You’re worthy because you are born and because you’re here. Your being alive makes worthiness your birthright. You alone are enough.”

◆ Everyone wants validation. “They want to know, Do you see me? Do you hear me? Does what I say mean anything to you?”

◆ Pay it forward. “Be that safe harbor for somebody else. Connect, embrace, liberate, love somebody, just one person, then spread that to two, then as many as you can. You’ll see the difference it makes.”

Oprah the guru, who often clasped her hands in a prayer position, explained her thoughts on religion.

“For all of you who get riled up when I mention God and you want to know which God I’m talking about, I’m talking about the same one you’re talking about,” she said. “I’m talking about the alpha and omega, the omniscient, the underpresent, the ultimate consciousness, the source, the force, the all of everything there is, the one and only G-o-d. That’s the one I’m talking about.

“God is love. And God is life. And your life is always speaking to you.”

Oprah the teacher pointed out that she has perfect attendance: She never missed a day in 25 years. Then, she pointed out her fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Duncan, in the audience, the first person who made Oprah feel like she mattered. “She let me lay out the graham crackers for the class,” she said.

Stedman Graham was in the audience and got a hug, but Oprah was talking to the camera when she said, “You and this show have been the great love of my life.”

There’s no bittersweet to the ending, she said. Just sweet.

“We have hooted and hollered together, had our a-ha moments, we ugly cried together, and we did our gratitude journals,” she said. “And so I thank you all for your support and your trust in me.

“I won’t say goodbye. I’ll just say until we meet again.”

As the crowd clapped, she murmured, “To God be the glory.”