Walking on the tiger's tailTreading
The more dangerous the ground, the more you must walk it as if it were ordinary.
The image of Lü is startling: walking behind a tiger's tail, and the tiger does not bite. On what authority? On measured steps. Heaven above, lake below — ranks clear, each in place. This is what propriety does: it defines the narrow distance between people where sparks easily fly.
Measure is not stiffness. The truly mannered are relaxed, because they never have to decide on the spot what may be said or whether to advance; the boundaries were internalized long ago. The unmeasured, by contrast, are tense everywhere — any step might land on a sore spot they cannot see.
Practice Before you speak today, leave half a second. Its only purpose: confirm this sentence must be said by you.