And then she thought that you went on living one day after another, and in time you were somebody else, your previous self only like a close relative, a sister or brother, with whom you shared a past. But a different person, a separate life. Certainly neither she nor Inman were the people they had been the last time they were together. And she believed maybe she liked them both better now.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the transformation of individuals over time and the acceptance of these changes.
In this quote, Frazier explores the idea that as we live our lives, we continuously evolve and change, becoming different individuals from who we once were. The reflection suggests a sense of nostalgia for the past self but also an appreciation for the growth and transformation that comes with time, indicating that individuals may end up liking their new selves even more than their old ones.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal development.
...she knew in her heart that nature has a preference for a particular order: parents die, then children die. But it was a harsh design, offering little relief from pain, for being in accord with it means that the fortunate find themselves orphaned.
Ask her what she craved, and she'd get a little frantic about things like books, the woods, music. Plants and the seasons. Also freedom. Not being bought and sold by some idiot employer, not having the moments of her days valued in fractions of a dollar by somebody other than herself.
Surely it is a sin to reject the few gifts we are given. Be happy in the flash of time granted to us or hurt forever.
But I believe the words entered me and changed me and still work in me. The words eat me and sustain me. And when I'm dead and in a box in the dark dark ground, and all my various souls have died and I am nothing but insensible bones, something in the marrow will still feel yearning, desire persisting beyond flesh.
That's not a thing any of us are granted. To go back. Wipe away what later doesn't suit us and make it the way we wish it. You just go on
What I wanted to do was slap him down a bit with wit and words. Grammar and vocabulary as a weapon. But what kind of world would it be if we all took every opportunity presented to us to assault the weak?
Where something becomes extremely difficult and unbearable, there we also stand always already quite near its transformation.
Change is the principal feature of our age and literature should explore how people deal with it. The best science fiction does that, head-on.
Sometimes - history needs a push.
If the National Football League, an organization notoriously known for not standing behind their athletes of color, can come out to make a statement to condemn racism and their systemic oppression and admit they were wrong for not listening in the past, then the 'Bachelor' franchise can most certainly follow suit.
The Russian people are suffering from economic fatigue and from disillusionment with the Allies! The world thinks the Russian Revolution is at an end. Do not be mistaken. The Russian Revolution is just beginning.
If you want to change your life you have to raise your standards.
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