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Do you know anybody who is truly happy with their body? Not just occasionally (“actually my bum doesn’t look too big in this dress today!") but totally, utterly accepting all day, every day?Recently, talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey weighed in with ‘Oprah’s Boot Camp’ to slim down, not only fat America, but a handful of her own overweight employees. In an almost surreal episode of the show Oprah asked her Boot Camp volunteers: “So, do you know why you are here?” One of the employees replied: “Coz we’re fat!” Oprah, uncharacteristically, spluttered at the response and then continued on with her peppy speech: “er, well, no…you’re here to make Life Changes that will Change Your Life!” Surely part of Oprah’s appeal is that she taps in perfectly to the self-loathing and triumph-over-self cycle in which much of her viewing public is hopelessly trapped. Not only has she tapped into the unconscious aspirations of her viewers, she has also played a part in the formation of those aspirations. It appears since losing weight (“own that number on the scales!") Oprah is on a personal crusade to slim down America. Yes, America has an obesity problem. Oh and yes, a healthy weight range is good for the heart, body and spirit. American sitcom actor Kirstie Alley is the current Weight Loss Queen of the World. When overweight she spoke of how she finally felt free to eat anything and not have her weight monitored by a television network. In a bizarre but not surprising twist, she began a new television show, ‘Fat Actress’, then decided she didn’t like being the fat actress after all, joined the Jenny Craig celebrity ranks, rapidly lost an enormous amount of weight and in no time released what became her bestseller ‘How To Lose Your Ass And Regain Your Life’. She blogs away on the Jenny Craig website compelling others to lose weight and change their lives. There seems to be a dizzy irony about her back-to-back ‘Fat Actress’ sitcom, her incredible weight loss and now her ambassadorship for Jenny Craig. Does Kirstie Alley represent the acute complexity that plagues so many women? Swinging often from extremes in an attempt to find a body or a life or a style of happiness that fits? Click HERE to read more HELP! I'M FALLING FOR A FAT MAN! 
July 27, 2006 | Dear Cary, Currently I'm dating a man who just won't leave my consciousness, not for a moment. I think of him all the time. He's pretty special. My problem is this: This wonderful man with whom I've shared some amazing moments and do share a phenomenal connection ... he's overweight. He's not merely out of shape or a hike and a swim away from fit, he's fat. I've made a conscious effort to look past it ("it" being my own stupid, shallow, superficial, counterproductive reaction to the weight), but there it is, all of the time. In bed, he's attentive, very strong, wonderful -- we enjoy genuine chemistry -- but even when the lights are out I find it difficult to navigate his flesh. I'm a smallish person stature-wise; it's difficult for me to wind around a man with what little leg I've been given, never mind a man the size of one and a half men. Worse yet is I fear being a selfish lover, because I don't fantasize pleasing him the way I would ordinarily with a slimmer man. I'm intimidated, daunted and generally unprepared for certain activities. I don't know what to do. It's a turnoff. And worst of all, part of the reason it's a turnoff is that I see myself with a head-turner when the lights are on. I've always been with striking men -- not pretty boys, but men who had that quality; after all, it's that quality which turns my head in the first place. And this man just doesn't light my fire in that way. I'm attracted to nearly everything about him but his size. So he doesn't light my fire, and doesn't feed my ego in the company of strangers. I hate myself even for admitting it; it's just so superficial. Am I trying to convince myself that we have a future together? Is there any way I can get past my bias and enjoy this person for who he is in total? 
MIDDLE EAST "Throughout the past two weeks of violence, mediators have talked of the necessity to create a new psychology, a psychology of peace, rather than one of war. Well, on this day, it was clear which psychology was dominant: a cycle of violence gathering intensity, leaving a peace process already dormant in tatters". Mike Hanna, CNN Jerusalem, October 2000 ON BEING HUMAN ON RELATIONSHIPS “The emotional upheaval of the very first encounter changes the two participants, who will never be the same people again…a new entity is forged; a new reality emerges. The two people do not remain independent entities…whenever two people meet there is an instant fusing so that a new being emerges.” Neville Symington ON ART Art is about taking risks. Great art is often proportionate to the degree of embarrassment the artist is able to endure. Frank Gehry - Architect ON POETRY 
“Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in life has a purpose.” Dr Elisabeth Kubler-Ross When someone you love dies, it is often experienced as both a physical and emotional wound so large, it feels it will never be filled. Apart from the actual physical loss of the person, there is a death as well of the relationship that was shared.
WHAT WE'RE LISTENING TO (among other things) 
TAKING THE LONG WAY - Dixie Chicks The Dixie Chicks' latest offering Taking The Long Way seems to suggest that indeed they have been. The three chicks are all grown up, or perhaps been forced to, after the vicious shaking the women have endured in their personal lives and in the face of political events of the past few years. The backlash the Texan trio received, beginning in 2003, due to their anti-Bush and anti-war stance was a fierce and ugly one and perhaps not one that would have been levelled at a trio of Dixie Blokes. They amounted enemies aplenty and, notably, their fiercest critics came from within the country music community and, inevitably perhaps, their country audience began to diminish. They remain, thankfully defiant and assert on ‘The Long Way Around’ that they could never “kiss all the asses that they told me to.” The Dixie Chicks were never going to be silenced by the vicious campaign against them and this latest album can stand as a defiant offering to the suggestion that they ever would. You certainly can’t take the country out of the chicks, but whilst their country fan base diminished, their international base swelled. Their purpose and intention played to an audience bigger and more sophisticated than their ‘country’ tag initially allowed. Their shift from country to pop in this new album feels natural and inevitable. The 14 cuts have been crafted with the help of writers such as Sheryl Crow, Gary Louris, Mike Campbell and Keb ‘Mo’, honestly and intimately laying our their lives in diary-like form. The R&B/gospel offering ‘I Hope’, the Chicks have chronicled their journey with both spirituality and protest. The Chicks now have chicks of their own and as new mothers they treasure the haven found in their lives with their families (‘Easy Silence’, ‘Lullaby’, ‘Baby Hold On’). The music feels like an accurate reflection of the changes in their lives and the songs do not disappoint. The music is still country-rooted but it suggests a new beginning – another brave step by the threesome – one which perhaps heralds a newfound identity.
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