Tyler Perry has paid many a visit to “CBS This Morning” in past years. The man who heads an entertainment empire that encompasses movies, theatre, television, and a myriad of other production projects does have another hit on his hands, but this morning of November 16, he was dodging that topic. There was a much higher purpose in his heart to share.
“Boo 2! A Madea Halloween” has brought in just under $22 million so far since the release of the 10th installment in the chronology of the meddling but well-meaning Madea, but Tyler Perry shied away from that entire repertoire this morning.
He insisted that he will never be that character for his son. Instead, he describes how the “healing” he receives through loving his cherished progeny is divinely inspired. The beginning “small steps” of that healing process started when Tyler Perry was asked to participate in a very personal and acclaimed part of the morning show.
Not just good friends gabbing
Co-anchor Gayle King is a very close friend of Tyler Perry, as is her best friend, Oprah Winfrey, but that closeness did not allow the conversation to derail off the track that Tyler was determined to stay on, commending his involvement with the regular feature, “Note to Self” in 2013. The segment (unique to “CBS This Morning”) invites personalities across disciplines to divulge wisdom, lessons, and counsel to themselves as a young child.
Just as in his heart-rending discussions with Oprah about a childhood that no child should endure, Tyler Perry was painfully honest through his revelations, assuring that even the ugliest of experiences would become positive forces in shaping the man he is. His father was brutally abusive in every sense to his desperately-yearning son, and Perry understands now that “He was a wounded man trying to raise a wounded son.” Nonetheless, the hurt remains real, and Tyler Perry didn’t sugar-coat the hard truth that it was a painful situation of “What didn't he do,” when it came to demeaning his son.
Perry calls his “Note to Self” the start of his catharsis, and he has passed the segment onto several people.
The power inside
While the pain imparted to Tyler Perry from his paternal parent left its permanent scars, the inspiring entertainment guru was inspired as a young man by the faith of his mother. “She believed in God, she believed in Jesus, and she would take me to church,” recalled Perry, who echoed that he is forever “grateful” for her living example in faith, and the hope that “things can always get better.”
Tyler Perry admonished that “if you don't give your children something, they're going to turn to something in hard times.” Sometimes that turn goes to drugs, the streets, prison, gang violence, or sex trafficking, all out of an innocent need to belong.
From there, the result can be a tragically lost generation of youth. He affirmed that his love for his son, Aman, restores his own heart as evidence of love’s powerful cycle of healing.
Perry's cure for being lost is to provide what he calls “a soul GPS” derived from his own life lessons in his book, “Higher Is Waiting.” He hopes the candor and wisdom of his own life experiences will empower others to have “prayer and faith for your dreams” that can be part of one’s soul navigation, with God as the guide.
One lesson this man of big dreams has had to learn is to be satisfied with smaller steps, so long as they move forward. He encourages every person to give themselves a pat on the back for every “step forward,” because forward moving dreams ultimately move believers to a “higher place.”
One of the ways Tyler Perry is “building higher” is his new studio expansion announced last month.
The complex will be in the former McPherson Army base, and the military offered full support in the acquisition. The producer, director, actor, and writer will be the first African-American to own his own studio outright, and its 330 acres will make it one of the largest in the world. Pal Oprah teases that it is “Tyler Town” outside Atlanta, but her friend keeps his eyes looking up, rather than at his achievements.
The one-man show-runner stars in the animated Christmas film, “The Star.” Tyler Perry has multiple blessings to count on those stars every night.
