Marianne Williamson Shares Her Thoughts on Memes, Goop, and Mar-a-Lago
Best-selling author, self-help oracle, and Oprah confidante Marianne Williamson has decided that it’s time for us to rebuild. All of us. The Democratic candidate for president of the United States and author of Healing the Soul of America (originally published, mind you, in 1997) is bringing her magical thinking to a crowded field with the hope that her singular brand of wisdom can lift the country to a higher plane of existence. And thanks to her mystical grasp of social media and transfixing debate performances, she has, against all odds, managed to stand out. Here, the White House hopeful takes some time away from the campaign trail to meditate on 15 semi-random things.
———
DOWNWARD DOG
“Yoga!”
———
THE KETO DIET
“I read up on it once, but it was too complicated, so I didn’t go any further. I try to eat in a healthy way, and the diet that works best for me has to do with watching my portions. I tend to eat little bits throughout the day more than large meals. I’m particularly fond of green grapes.”
———
AIR FORCE ONE
“Oh, that would be nice. I once saw a documentary about it on television that was quite fascinating. I have great respect and admiration for the people who fly it and maintain it, but I was surprised to see that the press doesn’t have seats that go all the way back into the sleeping position. I thought to myself, ‘If I’m president, we’re going to change that.’”
———
DEEPAK CHOPRA
“He is a great philosophical thinker. He has articulated the mind-body connection as profoundly as anyone has. He has awakened millions of people to the role of consciousness in influencing, affecting, and creating the tenor of our lives. He’s brilliant.”
———
SOCIAL MEDIA
“The best of things and the worst of things. Like so many other things on the material plane, it’s good or bad depending on the purpose ascribed to it by the human mind. This is something so new, something so significant and so radical in its implications, that I think we’re just beginning to have an adequate understanding of what has happened and what it means.”
———
KATE McKINNON
“These are such difficult times in so many ways, and the person who makes us laugh is such a treasure. When she played me on Late Night with Seth Meyers, I was on the floor laughing as much as anyone else was. I felt that the vast majority of humor around my first debate performance was not malevolent. It’s all good.”
———
RENATA KLEIN
“Laura Dern was my roommate many years ago. When she was 18 years old, she was an aspiring actress, and now she has developed into one of America’s greatest actresses. But as profound as her talent is, it’s nothing compared to how profound she is as a human being. I’m happy for her, and I’m happy for us.”
———
GOOP
“I did an interview with them once. I’ve never met Gwyneth Paltrow, but I enjoyed doing the interview. I go way back to the beginning days of the health and wellness phenomenon, and it’s fascinating to see how the culture is unfolding. She has clearly exposed millions of people to healthier concepts of living than they would have otherwise known. That’s always a good thing.”
———
THE IMPOSSIBLE BURGER
“What is this and why is it impossible?”
———
MAR-A-LAGO
“I was there once, when Donald Trump was married to Marla Maples. I had founded a nonprofit AIDS organization that gave nonmedical support services to people with life-challenging illnesses. There were people who were opening a branch in Palm Beach, and Marla Maples offered to host the fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago. I had never been there and I had never met Marla Maples. But that night, she earned my unending respect. She stayed up talking to those young men until the wee hours of the morning. This was a time when young men suffering sometimes terminal phases of their illness were dressing up in tuxedos to participate in these events, and she sat there so beautifully and so elegantly and so compassionately, talking to those young men, and I remember looking at her and thinking, ‘What a woman.’ I have never forgotten that.”
———
MEMES
“I’ve been honored by a few of them, done by very high-level artists and cartoonists. My favorite was of a man and woman kissing, and he says, or she says, I don’t know who, ‘You had me at fuck the system.’ And then it said, ‘Marianne 2020.’ I thought that was hilarious.”
———
THE AVATAR SEQUELS
“I haven’t seen the sequels. Have they come out yet? I do think that Avatar told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about some very serious socioeconomic realities in our world today. James Cameron was able to transmit such profound truths in cartoon form. Absolutely extraordinary. But when the sequels come out, I doubt I’ll be there opening night. I’ll probably wait to hear people tell me what they thought before I go.”
———
KEEPING UP WITH THE KARDASHIANS
“I’ve never watched a whole episode, just snippets. But when I ran for Congress in 2014, Kim Kardashian attended one of my fundraisers, and her interest in food safety was very real, very sincere, and very serious. I remember thinking what an incredible force for good she could be if she chose to use all that power to support such causes.”
———
TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION
“We’re living in a world of such rampant distraction, and a political campaign is such an emotional roller coaster—one minute there’s a reason to be excited, the next minute there’s a reason to be devastated—so you have to take responsibility for your own equanimity.”
———
BEAUTY SLEEP
“If only.”
