The note in the middle

A Bloomsbury Bookstore on a Sunday Morning in May (2005)

My writing journal not only gives me a place to scribble ideas for stories and articles, but it's also where I keep favorite passages from books I'm reading. Here's a great line from The Thinking Reed by Rebecca West:

"There was nothing casual about life in France; it demanded perpetually that one should hit the note in the middle."

Don't you find that - much too often - we are called upon to do the very tedious work of hitting the middle note, over and over? It takes such concentration and energy to stay on the dead-center of things - at work, at home, with people with love, with people we don't. As one who has a hard time staying on the middle note, often running up and down the keyboard, jumping up on the black keys, generally causing a ruckus - I think of West's words when I'm forced to contain myself.

I love Rebecca West, but I can't fly through one of her books. Her writing is so brilliant, that I have to savor every line.