Meaning:
Hope and anticipation are often better than reality.
Background:
This phrase is a Robert Louis Stevenson quotation, from Virginibus Puerisque,
1881:
"Little do ye know your own blessedness; for to travel hopefully is a
better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour."
Stevenson was expressing the same idea as the earlier Taoist saying - "The
journey is the reward."
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
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It definitely felt that way the first half of the SF marathon 10 years ago. It
was early in the morning of a sunny day and perfect running weather. About six
miles into the race, the horde were hit by a collective high floating over the
Golden Gate Bridge, cordoned off for the event. We were smiling, heads high and
pace assured, drinking in the views, cheering, and waving at gawking tourists.
Forget hope. I wouldn't mind doing it until I dropped dead.
The second half was less pretty, to say the least. Some deserted soon after the
Golden Gate Park and most were running out of gas, our heads low, and we were
barely able to put one foot in front of the other. When the marathon finally
started at mile 20, as they say, my feet felt barely attached to the legs. Some
compassionate Catholic visitors were making the sign of the cross at the
miserable scene. I saw bewildered pity in the bright eyes of the pony-tailed
pre-teen volunteer as she handed me a thin paper cup of elctrolyte. ``Why? Why
you have to kill yourself in this horrible way?'' she seemed to say. One zombie
step after another, I questioned the sanity of my choice, too.
I sure traveled hopefully by now, hoping for the damn thing to be over! Some
masochists might disagree, but I'd say the arrival was not just infinitely
better, it was redemption.
