thoughts, words, deeds

the place to stop

"You have delighted us long enough." Mrs. Bennet said this to her daughter Mary after she sang off key while playing the piano in Pride and Prejudice By Jane Austen. When have you been delighted by people long enough?

First off, I love this scene. There’s something so reassuring about Mary’s total obliviousness of her own inadequacies. I wonder sometimes, if I have that kind of obliviousness in some things.

It also reminds me of that terror of my childhood, the elementary school or middle school choir. They are mandatory for the children, which means that sometimes, the child can’t sing. And as someone who has fairly good relative pitch, that can be painful. Especially as sometimes, when a person can’t hear the pitch, they assume that going higher means going louder . . . I have five younger siblings and so I have gone to plenty of Christmas concerts where it was—painful.

This quote also reminded me of visiting family. There’s a point soon reached, in every visit, where if you stay a minute longer, you become part of the problem instead of part of the solution. I love visiting my siblings with their children. I love having them visit. But I also love going home or having the house to ourselves again.