Line by Line - Verse 2, Line 5

that length and shortness fashion out the one the figure of the other;
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Long and short contrast each other:
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Long and short reveal each other
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

(Note: Hogan skips this line.)
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

I don't know about you, but, when I travel to a location for the first time, the trip almost always seems to take longer than I imagined it would. It doesn't matter if the journey is just a few miles or several states away.

The first time my wife and I decided to go out to a local blueberry U-Pick farm, we noticed on some online map that it was located about 3 - 5 miles north of Raymond. So, off we went bumping down a country road. Because we wanted to insure that we didn't miss the turn-off, we slowed a bit each time we saw a driveway on the left. It seemed to take forever finally to arrive at the farm.

Once we had picked several buckets of the sweet berries, we retraced our route back to Highway 101. While the trip coming out seemed to take so long, the return trip seemed so short! Funny thing is that it is the same distance either way!

The difference in perception, of course, was based SOLELY on our expectations. So it is with much of life.

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