Scary Suze

I'll admit that I am completely and utterly fascinated by Suze Orman. I even created a character that I've performed on stage that is loosely based on her. I could watch her for hours and be both magnetized to and repelled by her at the same time. Today, she was a little frightening, I thought. There were people on the show asking for her financial advice (of course!) and she really focused today on the negative and chastised the folks pretty brutally. Usually she cuts people down in order to build them back up, but today was a bit unbalanced - she stomped on their heads and didn't always give thorough explanations of how they could make better choices. If you saw the show - I'm especially referring to the last couple. Sheesh! It made me cringe a little bit. Still, I'm crazy about her and her super-white teeth.

I just found out my mom loves Suze, too, and we both have the PDF of Women and Money downloaded from Oprah's site. Once the current book club selection is over, I'll delve into Suze's book.

The second half of the show revolved around "giving big" and I had a fire lit under my tush to keep moving forward on creating my own "Big Give." You might remember, Oprah told us to create our own philanthropic affair. I've been throwing around some ideas with friends and will plan for a summertime event.

Regarding my shopping list, my crisp, white shirt has arrived. I still need to buy that frustrating white denim jacket. Although I'm completely invested in this project, there's something so difficult about buying something I don't want. Peter Walsh and Suze Orman's advice (endorsed by Oprah) about living 'small' and not focusing so much on things really hits home for me and so when I'm told by Oprah what I "need" to have in my closet, I get really conflicted.

I am eager to see if the new shows, taped after A New Earth is complete, might reflect a less material viewpoint. Or, is that an impossibility when a network television show is dependent on sponsors and consumerism?

I had a realization this weekend: I need to step back and stop looking at these things emotionally. When I began this project, I wanted to be as neutral and objective as possible, but all of the very personal/spiritual/emotional work Oprah assigns makes it very difficult to keep this from becoming personal.