Scion of the Baskin-Robbins business, John Robbins, who unwittingly lost his entire fortune in the Madoff scandal waxes philosophical in the face of the immense loss (98% of his wealth). He walked away from the family business 20 years ago in favor of a writing career. Now, he finds himself at the age of 61 finding ways to cobble together “some semblance of financial security.”

See the touching interview with Robbins this week in the San Francisco Chronicle, where he discusses selling your soul for money, losing the ability to support your family, justice, and materialism.

Self-pity just sucks your energy, you know? What I did feel was a shock, absolute shock. I mean, to the point that there were moments that I thought: Could this kill me? I felt so much shock in my body, and what I was aware of was that in that shock I couldn’t really function. I didn’t think clearly, I couldn’t make decisions, and the situation required immediate action. I had to get over it, because in our particular situation we needed to act pretty quickly in order to not lose our home, in order to not make a suddenly very bad situation even worse.

He also discusses his own spirituality:

Did you grow up with any particular religion?

In my family, the religion was capitalism. Everything was measured in financial terms.

How did you become a spiritual person?

I did it through suffering. I felt so lost in a family that was so materialistic — so bereft, so empty, so frightened, really, that there was something missing for me. And obviously, it wasn’t material. We had anything money could buy. We had immense wealth, really.

Update: Ironically, the Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch reports Thursday that the San Francisco Chronicle might itself fall victim to the sagging economy: “The Hearst Corp. said Tuesday that unless the San Francisco Chronicle can undertake “critical” cost-cutting measures including job cuts within weeks, the media giant will be forced to sell or close the 144-year-old newspaper.”