the journey of a thousand miles
‘The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’ is a line from the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tsu. (The translation I’m familiar with, and that I’m using here, is the 1972 version from Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English. Why this translation? It’s the one that was in the house when I was growing up, and that’s the physical version I still have.)
Interestingly, this translation has a slightly translation of the line: A journey of a thousand miles starts under one’s feet.
It’s a standard line in discussions about the need to start. We can only get to the destination if we start the journey. This is something I reflect on to some significant extent when thinking about writing – we can only finish a story or a novel or piece of editing or anything else if we make a start.
It applies to aikido; we can only develop smooth technique if we make those first steps. And here, there is some subtlety. We can practice techniques for a long time, not progressing or improving, if we don’t practice with reflection and focus. And yes, this holds for writing too.
But what we don’t always remember is that we are taking that line out of context. It is part of one of the longer verses of the Tao Te Ching. I won’t give the whole chapter here; I do though encourage you to find it and read it.
Even in context, this line has largely the same meaning, but the whole verse taking together contains other aspects of the lesson, and for me, the meaning of this line expands a bit in the context of these other lines. For instance, ‘.. give as much care to the to the end as to the beginning,’ which I find particularly meaningful since the line in question is very much about beginnings.
What always strikes me about this line is that it doesn’t address what much of the time is the most difficult part of a journey. It is easy ofttimes to motivate ourselves and begin, but what then happens a hundred miles in, when we have still so much of the journey to go. What happens on the ten thousandth step, or the hundred thousandth.
Beginnings can be hard, to get over that hurdle to action, but persisting, continuing, persisting with the journey can be where our vigor fades, where our enthusiasm fades, when the journey becomes difficult.
And so, journeys. Like many other people, I’ve taken advantage and made some resolutions for this new Gregorian year. I won’t share them here, but they are each their own journey, now begun. We have the enthusiasm and excitement of this new journey. But we are still facing the awkward middle parts of these journeys. We’ll see how it goes.
multijimbo 