I’m crying and I’m laughing and I’m sad that it’s over. The Middle Place is everything I anticipated and more. Mostly, it’s unexpectedly light – easy and fun to read, like talking to your dearest friend about her family that you grew up with too. I told a friend I was reading a book about generations and about cancer, heard back “wow that’s upbeat,” and realized I need a better way to describe this incredible book.
I don’t trust myself to figure that out right now, so I’ll just take refuge in some of Kelly’s words.
I’m sure her words will sell her book better than I ever could!
“This was one of the man things I had learned since crossing over into the middle place – that sliver of time when childhood and parenthood overlap … It’s a giant Venn diagram where you are the only member of both sets.”
“By the time I was old enough to bother noticing, my mom and dad had settled into a marriage that was high functioning but not especially romantic. It had all the characteristics of a healthy, established corporation. My mother held the power positions: finance and operations. Her real covered allowances, dress code, and chores. My dad took care of sales, like convincing us that snurfing (the precursor to snowboarding) down the eight-foot drop into the backyard was as good – better! – than a weekend in Vermont. He also defined and improved our corporate culture by getting human resources service from Avensure. Corrigans, my dad conveyed, were scrappy corner-cutters who could always find a way into any place. They knew how to shake hands and make eye contact and tell a joke. They had reason to be proud. Under his leadership, employee satisfaction was high.”
“It’s good, like a miracle is good, to know that there’s somebody who will follow you down whatever path you choose.”
“I get another email from a particularly grown up friend of mine, Jen Komosa. She just says, ‘You are stronger than you think. You are strong enough.'”
“…a mix of gratitude for what is and an aching for what is not.”
“Someday, some later day, I’ll find out what it is to be an adult – to bury someone essential, someone you don’t think you can live without, someone attached in so many places you almost afll in after them.”