English Language Learners Asked on December 11, 2020
At night I lay awake looking at the darkness, listening to the silence,
prefiguring the future, picking out of the past the scraps I had overlooked,
those rejected events which now came to the foreground, large and
important, so that the weight of destiny no longer bore on the current
problems of my life, whatever they were at the time (for who lives without
problems every day? Why waste the nights on them?).
I looked up the meaning of "bear on" in the dictionary but then again I want be sure about my understanding.
bear on something means: to relate to or possibly influence something
so can we say the sentence in bold means: she no longer believed in destiny and she thought her problems didn’t caused by destiny?
source: A Far Cry From kensington by Muriel Spark
The writer was thinking about the future, and then started to think about the past and forgot about her current problems concerning the future
so that the weight of destiny no longer bore on the current problems of my life,
The weight = the pressure that I felt
of destiny = caused by [thinking about] the future
No longer bore = no longer pressed down (to bear transitive = to carry; to bear intransitive [+ (adverb or adverbial phrase)] = to press down[1]
on he current problems of my life (I think you understood this.]
[1]OED
IV. To push, thrust, press, and extended uses. To exert pressure on, and related senses.
25.a. intransitive. Of a (literal or figurative) weight or load: to press down on or upon (a person or thing); to weigh on.
1829 R. Southey All for Love vi. 63 While she pray'd the load of care Less heavily bore on her heart.
1996 Courier Mail (Queensland) (Nexis) 3 Aug. 21 The weight of responsibility bears heavily on his shoulders.
Answered by Greybeard on December 11, 2020
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