Journey of 1000 miles

Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres
Gaul is all divided into three parts

 Julius Caesar penned his famous first line in Gallic Wars almost 2200 years ago.  I encountered them 41 years ago.  Latin was the first language I learned, so these words are burned into my memory.  I learned a great deal about a second language for the next two years.  I learned how different words were, sentence structures were, concepts for time were, culture was, and that some words and sentence structures could easily have two or three ways to be expressed in English.  I remember spending much time in poring over translations.

The Chinese have a proverb: A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.  Yes, these two years of Latin were my first steps.  I didn't know it then, but the journey's destination was to study several ancient languages and a modern language and to study all the principles in the science of all languages.  Who would've guessed!  But, the journey to that destination was the product of many, many, many steps after the first ones.

I don't know how many steps I have taken, probably about 950 miles worth.  I know I am not through taking steps and accumulating miles either.  But, there is a notable difference between the early steps of the first 500 miles and the later steps of the last 450 miles.  The first half of the journey contained tremendous amounts and bursts of work.  The second half contained mechanical ease from repetition, conclusions about limitations of expressions, and manipulation of facts in constructing theories.  Applying information from other fields to the science helped in seeing a larger and ever-growing picture.  Now operating within the discipline is not work, it is enjoyable and familiar.  Like family, I have grown up and grown older around this science.  Now it's time to smile.

I wish all of life would be like this particular journey.  But, life doesn't work that way.  It's not a series of unilateral decisions, but made up of bilateral or multi-lateral decisons.  Relationships developed have many contributing factors as to how strong they become.  Jobs have many people and circumstances to interact with.  My own birth family stretches its horizons beyond the family I knew and grew up in.  Beliefs are tested against reality and change their shape or break altogether.  Acceptance of values into one's own philosophical view is based on proven track records rather than their ideal or theoretical worth.  All in all, life is messy..  The destination of life is not well defined and evidently has so many different paths leading to its success, that even the proverbs of a society have to change if it lasts long enough.

The saving grace is that there is a degree of familiarity, ease, and enjoyment in the second half of life like there is in the formal training and experience that a person chooses... Golden years to be sure.