Frazz by Jef Mallett for May 18, 2021

One of my favorite pastimes used to be reading the dictionary and then looking at nearby words… or definitions of words in the definition. Now I do a very similar thing on the web.

One of my favorite pastimes used to be looking up a word in the dictionary or encyclopedia and then following a zig-zag track from there to wherever it led. Now I use the web for that.

If you’re in Family Circus, the zigging and zagging is 10x as far.

I’m sure the Romans weren’t the only culture to have a measurement based on 1000 paces.

Miles Standish did not know he had 999 others of his name and I doubt he would want to go on a journey with them!

The Chinese measurement term is “Li”.

It’s called “translation,” Caulfield. You’re supposed to be precocious.

The journey of a thousand smiles starts with one essential tooth.

So, keeping one’s eye on the ball is successful only so long as one’s other eye is on it, too?

“The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.” Big deal. Getting up to visit the john also begins with a single step. Sonority does not equal wisdom. You can learn that from Lao Tzu; you can also learn it from Khalil Gibran. Shakespeare has his moments too, as Bernard Sharpoint it out.

Quotes tend to get more than translated but modified to fit the language of the speaker. “A journey of a thousand third of a miles begins with a single step” does not work as well.

Also “give them an inch they’ll take an ell” does not work as well in a society that does not use the ell as a type of distance.

But both have been used to demonstrate how Americans exaggerate since neither measurement is anywhere near a mile in length.

I like the last quotation about zigging and zagging, finding a distraction, and having the length of the journey be twice as long. I equate it to cleaning up the house which can take all day as you put something where it belongs, pick up something else to move and go on and on.

At my age, a journey of a thousand millimetres begins with a single groan.

Leaving the measurement as a thousand ‘ri’ is awkward when all the other words are in English.

Not sure this is quite the same thing, but… thanks to the commenter a while back who brought my attention to Frazz’ FB page, I now go there immediately after reading the strip and most of the comments! Because the comments are helpful to me sometimes, I haven’t quite decided about whether it’s best to read them first and then go to FB, or vice versa. Life is difficult!!

Tao Te Ching is brilliant ironic comedy. It opens with; for a peaceful empire muzzle the bright ones.

I’m guessing that Lao Tzu didn’t use the word “journey” either, or “begins”, or anything else in English.

Lao Tzu expressed the saying in Chinese and used “li” as the unit of measure.

“If you want to go fast, travel alone. If you want to go far, bring company”

The proverb ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’ is first found in the Tao Te Ching, which is a classical Chinese Taoist text usually credited to Laozi (a.k.a. Lao Tzu), and probably written between the 4th and 6th century BC. The original text is:

“A journey of a thousand li [a Chinese mile] starts beneath one’s feet”

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/a-journey-of-a-thousand-miles-begins-with-a-single-step.html

From the quote 千里之行，始於足下, by the Chinese philosopher Lao (c 604 bc – c 531 bc) in the Tao Te Ching, chapter 64. Sometimes this quote is erroneously attributed to Laozi’s contemporary, Confucius (c 551 bc – c 479 bc), founder of Confucianism.

Chinese:

Cantonese: 千里之行，始於足下‎, 千里之行，始于足下‎ (cin1 lei5 zi1 hang4, ci2 jyu1 zuk1 haa6)

Mandarin: 千里之行，始於足下‎, 千里之行，始于足下‎ (qiānlǐ zhīxíng, shǐyú zúxià)

https://www.wordsense.eu/a_journey_of_a_thousand_miles_begins_with_a_single_step/

Lao Tzu also wrote: Without going out of my door, I can see all things on earth. … The farther one travels, the less one knows. (Tao Te Ching, Chapter 47, G. Harrison trans.)

So maybe that single step is a bad idea. Was the verse Caulfield quotes intended as a warning?

“Knowing others is intelligence;

knowing yourself is true wisdom.

Mastering others is strength;

mastering yourself is true power.”

― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

I believe this was attributed to “Ibid”. :)

Jef Mallett: Your wit and grace are appreciated.

TRUE!

You determine the start and turns of the journey so in part whether it is good or bad is up to you.