The Love Chronicles

A few months ago I was waiting at Tegel Airport before I could board my flight home to Chicago. I sat near a television screen that was flashing various headlines, but one particular report caught my eye. According to n-tv (the German equivalent of CNN), we only fall in love three times in our lives, which I loosely interpreted to mean that we have three major loves during our life.  Here are the three purported loves: #1: The first love is our "childhood love" - or to be redundant, the very first love of our life. Childhood love sounds like you were fourteen when it happened. I was not a child, however, I was twenty.   #2: The second love is our "difficult love." This was all of my mid to late 20s and a few months after my 30th birthday. #3: The third love is the "unexpected one." This love began for me at the age of 30. I have had plenty of time to ponder the claim, which one might immediately discredit. Three loves? No! I fell in ...

...1,000 words? We all know the old adage, but I think a picture can be worth a lot more. I'm not sure about you, but I have always had a vivid imagination. I would often envision myself as a successful and glamorous actress, rock star, top model, princess or other rich and famous person, and somehow that person in my head, whatever form they took, looked thinner, taller, prettier and certainly better styled. The "perfect" ideal has unfortunately been planted in our heads from a very young age. My coveted Barbies, once treasured playthings, now symbolize for me much of what is wrong with our perfection-driven society. We are supposed to look "perfect." Even emaciated models who are size 0 or 2 (think Victoria Beckham) have their arms and legs photoshopped in ads. Heidi Klum is almost my height - she is 5'9"/175 cm and I'm almost 5'10"/177 cm - but she weighs almost 20 pounds less than I do - she weighs in at 137lbs/62kg and I'm at...