From books to music to theater and fine art, from TV and films to spiritual teachers with insights for the recession, this blog takes a look at current culture through a spiritual perspective — with a touch of humor. Betsy Robinson, laid off from a job as managing editor for a spiritual magazine, continues the work that makes her happy — sharing what makes her happy through reviews*, interviews, news spots, and more.

*Unless otherwise specified, reviewed materials have been received as journalist's "review copies" and have not been purchased by the reviewer.

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A Really Bad Hair Day (Feb. 13 blog)

The Art of Collapsing (Feb. 6 blog)

John Patrick Shanley on transcending fame (Jan. 30 blog)

Life is only temporary says Evan Handler (Jan. 28 blog)

The New World of Finance (Jan. 28 blog)

The new slimmer You after 30 days on the unemployment diet (Jan 23 blog)

All about growing up in a cult (April 16 blog)

How to Get Fat and Sound Evolved Even if You're Not (Jan. 13 blog)

Fierce Giving (Jan. 8 blog)

Betsy's Blog: Notes from a Crusty Spiritual Seeker
—an eclectic mix of soul-stirring cultural stuff—

Cartwheels in a Sari: A Memoir of Growing Up Cult by Jayanti Tamm — review & interview

April 16, 2009

Tags: compassionate wisdom, healing, review

In this time of risk-taking based on promises of exorbitant returns from precarious investments, what could be more timely than the tale of growing up in a community where everybody has surrendered all decision-making and self-responsibility for the promise of divine protection and maybe God realization?

In her riveting, sometimes heartbreaking, often hilarious memoir, Cartwheels in a Sari (Harmony Books, April 14, 2009), Jayanti Tamm recounts how her parents, like so many people who came of age in the sixties and seventies, met a guru after years of spiritual seeking. So moved were they by the experience that they didn’t question his direction to marry each other — despite the fact that they’d just met. They did, however, flaunt the directive to remain celibate. (more…)

Tulips and a Request for a Slight Alteration

April 15, 2009

Tags: Unemployment, fun, healing

“Here’s the thing,” I seem to be saying. “I really like flowers, but my eyes no longer open enough to fully enjoy their colorful fluorescence because of my gravity-challenged brows. And I think, doctor, I sincerely believe that I should be given an eye job for medicinal purposes — fully paid for by insurance, of course. Don’t you agree? (more…)

Rx for Unemployment Blues: Seeking Peace by Mary Pipher

April 3, 2009

Tags: Unemployment, compassionate wisdom, healing, review

It may seem paradoxical that reading about panic attacks due to overwhelming professional success and an abundance of work is calming to a person who’s been unemployed for months and battered by the recession, but that was my experience reading Mary Pipher’s new book Seeking Peace: Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World. It may seem counterintuitive that reading about a big, warm circle of supportive family could make a person whose family is mostly dead feel hugged, but, again, that is the case with this simultaneously comforting and entertaining book about a bestselling writer’s meltdown and recovery. (more…)

Selected Works

anthology of stories and plays
Girl Stories & Game Plays
includes Darleen Dances and stories below

play
Darleen Dances
1-act play

short stories
Pretending
what we all do ... don't we?
Ice Cream
a Baskin-Robbins love story
Jakey, Get Out of the Buggy
the problem with worrying about the future

novel
Plan Z by Leslie Kove
a funny, sometimes sad, story of negotiating life without a clue

true story
Marbles
Why I don't believe in death.

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