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APAD: "Time is the longest distance between two places"

最西边的岛上 2024-11-11 08:52:52 ( reads)

"Time is the longest distance between two places." - Tennessee Williams 

The line is, "I didn't go to the moon, I went much further-- for time is the longest distance between two places."  It's from the end of the play, The Glass Menagerie. An aged version of the character Tom says it as a soliloquy to the audience as he reflects on his life. He's playing off the fact that his mother had dismissed his youthful exuberance by telling him, "Go, then! Then go to the moon--you selfish dreamer!"

In Tom's subsequent life, he doesn't go to the moon, but he does leave home in St. Louis and never returns.
- Source: online
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Near the end of our CA trip, we visited colourful Castro District in SF and enjoyed it very much. Not only we met some very friendly people (and their dogs), but felt the area is full of artist spirit, in addition to the wonderful smell from bakeries.

I was surprised and happy to see the image of Oscar Wilde on the sidewalk, as we have shared some of his wise words here in APAD. So I searched quotes by Tennessee Williams (who's image is also there) and found this interesting one as above.

But I failed to find a clear meaning of the quote, as people all seem to have their own ideas, based on their own lives.  Some say it means "that time is an insurmountable distance for those that have yearnings". Some say it means "things that you need, you crave for, and you hate are separated by time. No matter what we do, we can't go back to the place we started in the same condition and time. We can only move forward in time with assumption that we started just like new."

So, my friends, I will leave it as an open meaning APAD for you to chew on when you have time.
 

Wish you all a good Monday!

1. 

2.

 

3. Three happy singers (one local and two visitors from France). 

Note: they were strangers we met in the neighbourhood, when passing a blue house french song writer Maxime Le Forestier used to live in the 70s. They told us the story and sang the popular song he worte there for us. Actually I took a video of their singing, with this photo as a capture from the video.

Added: the blue house in this photo is the same blue house in the song and song video below.  

4. The song "San Francisco"

 

 

跟帖(17)

7grizzly

2024-11-11 09:01:39

Hope the quote never becomes so popular that everyone but me

7grizzly

2024-11-11 09:01:55

knows what it means :-)

最西边的岛上

2024-11-11 09:24:48

hahaha, I'm worse. So will go 2 sweep mountain of leaves ;-)

最西边的岛上

2024-11-11 09:27:21

btw, tried TartineBakery there (thx). very good croissants!!

7grizzly

2024-11-11 11:55:17

Glad you liked it. The book "Cooked" raved about the baker.

最西边的岛上

2024-11-11 12:28:23

No wonder it was still busy @ non-busy hours :-))

移花接木

2024-11-11 10:16:56

Is light-year a method to measure distances with time?

最西边的岛上

2024-11-11 10:27:42

Yes, if go up in sapce ,2 infinite and beyond ;-))

天边一片白云

2024-11-11 17:48:13

If you have been away from home town for long time,

天边一片白云

2024-11-11 17:49:04

time is the longest distance between you and the hometown.

最西边的岛上

2024-11-11 18:01:45

Wow, U r so Right 白云!!! Yes we were away 4 2 long months &

最西边的岛上

2024-11-11 18:03:52

homeLooksSoDifferent thanWhatRemembered. so time == distance

最西边的岛上

2024-11-11 22:52:31

moreAccurate: time creates distance, even Maowi treated me

最西边的岛上

2024-11-11 22:54:20

like a stranger when I visited him today ;-((

天边一片白云

2024-11-11 17:49:51

Nice song, though I don't understand French.

最西边的岛上

2024-11-11 18:15:36

me neither;-). E lyrics below:

天边一片白云

2024-11-12 14:27:42

thanks.