And on that evening when we grow older still we'll speak about these two young men as though they were two strangers we met on the train and whom we admire and want to help along. And we'll want to call it envy, because to call it regret would break our hearts.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the complexities of admiration and envy towards others as we age, highlighting our desire to help and connect, while concealing our feelings of regret.
In this quote, Andr Aciman captures the bittersweet emotions that come with growing older and reflecting on the lives of others. It emphasizes how we often disguise our deeper feelings of regret with admiration, especially when we look back on lost opportunities or unfulfilled dreams. The idea of viewing these young men as 'strangers' suggests a distance created by time and circumstance, yet there remains a longing to support and connect with them, revealing the dual nature of our emotions—both envy for their potential and a hidden sense of loss for what we ourselves may not have achieved.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a reunion to reflect on how we've changed and what we admire in others.
As we walked, I began to wonder what the opposite of molting was and why, unlike the body, which sheds everything, the soul cannot let go but compiles and accumulates, growing annual rings around the things it wants and dreams and remembers
Perhaps we were friends first and lovers second. But then perhaps this is what lovers are.
We brought the religious leaders and the secular development workers together in one room. We asked the religious leaders what are your reservations about development workers? And we asked the development workers, what are your reservations about religious leaders? It turns out that most of the problems are not really problems at all, but rather misunderstandings, misconceptions, and mis-communications.
Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in bonds of fraternal feeling.
Once a woman passes a certain point in intelligence she finds it almost impossible to get a husband: she simply cannot go on listening without snickering.
I have always tried to avoid talking to pretty girls, because pretty girls have a vicious effect on me in which every part of my brain is shut down except for the part that says unbelievably stupid things and the part that is aware that I am saying unbelievably stupid things.
A woman can forgive a man for the harm he does her...but she can never forgive him for the sacrifices he makes on her account.
They wanted black women to conform to the gender norms set by white society. They wanted to be recognized as 'men,' as patriarchs, by other men, including white men. Yet they could not assume this position if black women were not willing to conform to prevailing sexist gender norms. Many black women who has endured white-supremacist patriarchal domination during slavery did not want to be dominated by black men after manumission.
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