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{"id":6032,"date":"2014-05-21T14:33:23","date_gmt":"2014-05-21T19:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/?p=6032"},"modified":"2015-03-13T15:26:24","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T20:26:24","slug":"on-crises-and-middles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2014\/05\/21\/on-crises-and-middles\/","title":{"rendered":"On Crises and Middles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Ever feel \u201cfair-to-middling\u201d? In\u00a0The Curator<\/em>, L.L. Barkat ruminates on \u201cmiddles\u201d:<\/p>\n

Middle places can be unsettling. I wrote\u00a0a whole novella<\/a>\u00a0I now look upon as a \u201cmiddle\u201d book. I wrote it at the same time I was fiddling with\u00a0 beginnings<\/a>. And, oddly enough, I started the novella with the words, \u201cThe End.\u201d<\/p>\n

The End is a logical place to begin when you are middling. I asked a dear friend once \u2014 a person whose life I did not comprehend at the time \u2014 \u201cHow are you?\u201d She was standing in the hallway with her spouse, and her face was tight and sad. \u201cFair to middling,\u201d she said. What a fascinating phrase, and I wish I had been more understanding, regarding the end she must have been considering.<\/p>\n

It is the rare person, I think, who is comfortable with another person\u2019s middling.<\/p>\n

Read the whole essay here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"