September 29--Balance Required

Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.  --Gustave Flaubert 

    I looked up the definition of "violent" and I'm going with the option of "very strong or powerful." Flaubert's quote above makes sense with this description from the "Famous Authors" website:

A perfectionist by nature, Flaubert’s publishing frequency was much less than that of his peers. The reason being is his painstaking perfectionism. He would spend days and sometimes even weeks to compose a single page. And he was still never satisfied with what he wrote. Gustave worked very hard on his writing and refused to use synonyms, instead he believed in the principle of finding le mot juste (the right word) always. His ultimate aim was stylistic perfection for which he repeatedly revised his work.

    If he was that much into perfectionism, I expect the rest of his life was regular and orderly so as not to be a distraction from his writing. His best known work was "Madame Bovary."
    Speaking from personal experience, there is a fine line between "regular and orderly" and being a control freak. (I'm guessing Flaubert went quite over the line.) An organized, orderly life makes time for those things we truly value. If we are continually lost in the chaos of life, creativity, joy and expansion are the big losers in the effort to survive. Controlling every detail, however, is its own distraction.
    Trying to stay on that fine line,
        Leta