Is This My Chair?
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Breathless. Back from the Rabbit Hole

Breathless. Back from the Rabbit Hole

October 3, 2012 · by Bethany · in art, beauty, cultcha, insecurity, obsessions

Dang. I almost didn’t make it out. I have things to do—Deadlines, dinner, grading, art practice, big plans to make. So what a dumb time to follow a link I found in Jezebel about Victorian portraits, and the cute trend…

Moving Right Along

Moving Right Along

September 25, 2012 · by Bethany · in insecurity, non-fiction, uncategorized, writing, zen practice

So I heard back from Coffeehouse Press today. Not interested. It’s ok. I really doubted they would take it, but my friend knows someone there, so hey, what the heck! I am trying to keep myself gathered as I continue…

Joko Revisited

Joko Revisited

September 19, 2012 · by Bethany · in fear, insecurity, non-fiction, obsessions, religion, uncategorized, writing, zen practice

  I had the good fortune of spending last weekend at the monastery. It was the 2nd annual senior’s retreat, which means that the 20 or so people who  have gone through the process of becoming empowered as senior students…

Cute, right?

This Person Should Be This Way: A Real Girl

August 25, 2012 · by Bethany · in beauty, cultcha, insecurity, interviews, non-fiction, obsessions, reading, writing

Finally, I finished Ms. Heti’s book. Ve-ry-in-ter-est-ing. Last night T and I hung out with some neighborhood friends and I was talking to the lady, who is a famous food person and a lovely human who I really admire, and…

It's a good question, Ms. Heti! Care to discuss?

Signed, Clueless in the Catskills

August 7, 2012 · by Bethany · in beauty, cultcha, insecurity, interviews, obsessions, reading, writing

Gosh, what can I say? As promised, I have been reading Ms. Heti’s book (I am on page 133, the beginning of the chapter “They Wander the City on Drugs,” which came shortly after the chapter “Interlude for Fucking,” a…

Alice Adeline Cooke, in her mugshot, after being convicted of bigamy and theft. Nice!

Look! A Real Person!

July 10, 2012 · by Bethany · in insecurity, non-fiction, obsessions, uncategorized, writing

  I love human beings. Not necessarily individual ones, like to talk to, in person, but to watch, to admire, to experience, say, on a subway car full of them. Or to look at pictures of them, in their lives….

When Queen Maya woke up from her dream of a white elephant, she was pregnant with the Buddha. I wonder what's waiting for me....

Waking Up From Dreams & How Chris Hedges (On War, Art, and Being a Soccer Mom) Helps me Work it Out

July 6, 2012 · by Bethany · in insecurity, interviews, love, obsessions, religion, zen practice

  Part I My neighbor, Claude, committed suicide last weekend. He was in his 60’s diabetic, super bummed to be riding around in his scooter thing. I always avoided him and his wife, but T, being the friendly one in…

Salon has a winner today!

Salon has a winner today!

June 28, 2012 · by Bethany · in fear, insecurity, love, non-fiction, obsessions, writing

T just passed this on to me (via Facebook….grrrr…..). Wowza, Ms. Purtill! She just made it on to my women I want to talk to list. Oh, the irony of her getting all those “likes” as she writes about giving…

Earnestness incarnate (Antioch 1989?)

Is Someone Sitting in My Chair?

June 26, 2012 · by Bethany · in beauty, cultcha, insecurity, obsessions, poetry, religion, uncategorized, writing

  There was a time when I hated anyone who mentioned the New Yorker without irony. And then I graduated from Antioch, grew the hair on my head, shaved the rest, that tired old cliche of moving into the mainstream,…

Can you believe that adorable sashed number is a bathrobe?

Am I the Only one Who Can’t Handle Facebook?

June 21, 2012 · by Bethany · in fear, insecurity, obsessions, uncategorized, writing

Seriously. I just can’t be. And yet…I look at the cool, interesting, happy, or maybe tortured, but in any case somehow styled, or, rather, curated, pictures strewn across my computer screen—people I once knew, people I wished I had never…

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ABOUT ME
My name is Bethany Saltman. I am 50 years old.

From as far back as I can remember, I have been searching for my place in the world. When my husband worked in a nursing home, there was an old lady there who used to repeat, "Is this my chair? Is this my chair?" I can relate to that lady.

My website is bethanysaltman.com, and my email is bethanysaltman@gmail.com.

ABOUT THIS SITUATION
I started this blog because I was so deeply fatigued by waiting for word on Non-Fiction Book Proposal #3 that, for the first time in my life, I needed something to do.

And because I was so over the hope that if I did this, or that, or the other thing just right, and schmoozed the perfect contact, crafted the most riveting pitch, delivered the juiciest proposal, then, then.....

I finally decided to just write what I want to write.

So that's the situation.

Eatables

  • 101 Cookbooks
  • Peekamoose

Go-tos

  • Zen Center of New York City/Fire Lotus Temple
  • Zen Mountain Monastery

Readables

  • A Public Space
  • Arts and Letters Daily
  • Brain Pickings
  • Corinne Purtill
  • http://www.spoonwiz.com/
  • Maud Newton
  • McSweeney's
  • My column. Flowers Fall: Field Notes from a Buddhist Mom's Experimental Life
  • n + 1
  • Rachel Zucker

Relate-ables

  • Annie Dwyer Internicola
  • Corinne Purtill
  • Heather King
  • Leanne Shapton
  • Lisa Catherine Harper
  • Rachel Zucker

Things That Intrigue Me

  • Who Were They?

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