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To read her entire speech, please visit the OPEF website.

About a month ago I was in a taxicab that went down Ridgeland Avenue. I caught a glimpse of this mural … this beautiful tribute to my father, as yet unfinished. I saw the words "go farther. It is about a man who is trying to find a huge hill and the ground beneath him is swampy and treacherous. The distances beckon him, but he is hesitant because he wants to know what waits for him beyond that seventh fold.

The poem ends with the climber saying to himself, take heart, go farther on. My father loved this poem because in many way s it symbolized his own personal struggle and the uncertainty as to what might lie ahead. My dad was a man who would never give up. In his unfailing determination, a voice whispered to him, "Take heart, go farther on.

My father was, among many things, a dreamer. He dreamt about the outcome of atoms shifting positions or traveling the secret pathways of electrons, spinning about their orbits. He dreamt about world peace, as well as the eradication of racism and the brotherhood of man. In his wildest imagination, however, he never would have dreamt that Oak Park would erect a middle school that would bear his name.

He would have been so proud of this school. At one point, my dad thought of being a musician. He played the piano and the saxophone.

Jackson Browne - Farther On

At another time he toyed with the idea of being an actor. He was extremely dramatic and a great orator and a great poet. I used to tell him he was a genius, but he always said that wasn't true. When he was in the seventh grade he decided he wanted to be a chemist. In his hometown of Montgomery, Alabama, he climbed a fence and peered into the window of a high school chemistry class at a white high school.

Farther On by Jackson Browne

A police officer yanked him off the fence, admonishing him never to go there again. After that day, dreams of test tubes danced in his head and dreams of being a chemist were born. When my dad finished eighth grade, there was no public high school that African Americans could attend. As a result of his educational deficiencies, when he entered DePauw University, he was classified as a sub-freshman, which meant he had to carry his college courses along with the high school classes in which he was deficient.

Jackson Browne - Farther On Lyrics | SongMeanings

Yet he still managed to graduate valedictorian of his class. When my dad went off to college, three generations of hope went with him to the train station. There was his year-old great-grandmother who had once picked a record pounds of cotton in one day. There was his grandfather, waving a hand from which two fingers were missing, the penalty for a slave for learning to write. And there were his parents. Seeing them all there that day served as a reminder to my dad of the wrongs of slavery and strengthened his resolve and determination to achieve.

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My father thought his academic honors would win him admission to the best schools, such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton. Instead, the top schools sent letters to his dean at DePauw with virtually the same theme. The letters went something like this: There is no future for Negroes in chemistry. Encourage him to go south and teach at a Negro college. My father was not daunted by racism. In fact, it raised its ugly head many times throughout his life.

Farther On

Consider his arrival at DePauw University as an incoming freshman. Jackson Browne — Farther On. Farther On song meanings. Add your thoughts 7 Comments. General Comment This is one of Browne's most underrated songs off of his most brilliantly written album. The song illustrates a man's journey through his trials. This guy has put his heart on his sleeve time after time and it is continuously trampled and beaten.

But he knows that the angels are with him and he continues on in his pursuit of happiness with his heart full of hope. A very uplifting song. No Replies Log in to reply. There was an error. General Comment A bit more detailed interpretation: Browne recognizes reality instead of refusing to see life as it is and he still refuses to let it get him down. Unlike the Pretender he has not grown disillusioned with this world; unlike the Everyman he is not looking for a way out of his problems and disappointments; and unlike the Hold Out he recognizes reality and is not watching it through rose colored glasses.

No matter how many times his "dreams have come up torn and empty," no matter that "heaven's no closer than it was yesterday" this guy will not quit. He continues to allow beauty to be his guiding star. More than that, he understands as well that he may not have all the answers and indeed remarks that he could maybe have lost his way and in a parallel of reality even the angels have grown older.

By the end of the song Browne has lost all of the reasons he once had for pursuing hope and trusting to faith to bring him home but he stubbornly refuses to lie down. He realizes that the next dawn could bring him a fresh start and new meaning for his life. He has come so far and puts his "faith in the distance" accepting that he just has to keep pushing forward in life until he comes across something to restore his passion for living as something undoubtedly will.

Perhaps what impressed me most with this song was the absolute truth behind the message. No one will get up every day and be perfectly excited in a can't-wait-to-face-the-day sort of way. We all have our moments of the blues. But this song reminds us that we can't let our depression and damp spirits convince us to do something that should not be done. By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Cookie Policy , Privacy Policy , and our Terms of Service.

What's the difference between "farther on", "ahead" and "farther ahead" in these examples related to physical locations? Doing some Google searches I learned that "ahead" is the most popular.

If something is further or farther ahead on, it is further farther ahead of a specified reference point which is itself ahead of another reference point:. If you have not set out on your twelve-mile journey to the dig site yet but are just about to set out , you would not say:. By clicking "Post Your Answer", you acknowledge that you have read our updated terms of service , privacy policy and cookie policy , and that your continued use of the website is subject to these policies.

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