Sensei Talks  

I don’t REALLY know what Jennnifer Love Hewitt thinks about her unflattering photos, but I think she’s integrated “sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me” really well. Good for her!

What are we to make of this? No public angst. No rush for lipo. Will we accept her failure to react badly? Will we vote to keep her on or toss her off? In her review of “five linked documentaries about body image on BBC America Reveals Life on the …extreme of the scale” Ginia Bellafonte highlights the “masochism and misery” of Hollywood dieting, contrasting it sharply with kindness extended to the “476 lb. teenager” Bethany.

This demonstrates the public vigilante/witch hunt mentality as we chase [thin] stars with a silver stake [camera]. Fan worship redefines how close love and hate are emotionally. Stars are thin, happy, successful and beautiful. We chase them down like townpeople after Dracula til they crack, then we scorn them for their weakness.

Conversely, we “extend our unmitigated sympathies” to someone like Bethany. We can blame her mother and we can probably sue the pizza maker for selling them to her, but we dare not assign any “portion” of responsibility to Bethany for her role in the choices she made.

We all lose control from time to time. Somtimes it’s your temper or your budget…sometimes it’s your feelings and often it's with food. We overeat to self-medicate our bad choices or “failed resistance mechanisms” compounding our fall from grace. How do we restore the balance? Build up immunity to triggers that cause us to lose control? I’d love to know what works for Jennifer Love Hewitt, and I’d love to know what works for you...