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. We have to get out of bed and live our lives recognizing some days will be better and some will be not so great. So even if you live from happy moment to moment any kind of life is better than no life at all and we should all remember this when the world seems dark and lonely and bleak. We have to place our trust in the distance.
A bit more detailed interpretation:
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. We have to get out of bed and live our lives recognizing some days will be better and some will be not so great. So even if you live from happy moment to moment any kind of life is better than no life at all and we should all remember this when the world seems dark and lonely and bleak. We have to place our trust in the distance.