Ptahhotep Maxims, Conclusion 1 of 7

Boy, we  sure are learning.

Some word mean a whole boat-load of things.

And some phrases too.

The word clouds are bizarre and extensive.

Like English, the words can function for different forms of speech.

So each sentence is a cloud of meaning next to another cloud of meaning next to another cloud of meaning, in chain.

And the signs themselves have interchangeable functions. You really don't know if a sign is part of a word or its own word. It could describe the word in front of it, thus be a part of it, or it can be a separate idea. Or it can stand for a sound, as a separate word, or as part of a word. There are abbreviations but there is no punctuation. It takes awhile to chop it all up.

There is a sign that clearly means face. It's a face with a 1 next to it. Apparently, it's one of those words that occur in languages that becomes imbued with additional meaning through time because it's the archaic Egyptian when this does mean "face" and Middle Egyptian and Late Egyptian it means so many other things that it's not even funny.

Just as "heart," clearly a heart, an animal heart, means "mind." And even in English those two things are interchangeable. "Had a mind to go conquer the Hittites." vs "Had a heart to go conquer the Hittites."

Egyptians believed thinking occurred in the heart. It's why during mummification the heart gets a canopic jar and it's own god to watch over it, and the brain gets dug out with a crochet needle and discarded in bits. Ew, gross.

So where the high-level, eons spanning, multi-linguistic, doctorate holding, book writing, conference attending, globe trotting, well respected experts agree "mind," I stick to "heart." Because that's what I'm seeing.

Just bite me because I don't even care.

If you hear these things I have said to you,
your every method will be to the fore;
as for any pertinent instance of Maat, that is their worth.
Their memory will dance in the mouth of people
because of the perfection of their phrases.
When any maxim is used,
it cannot perish in this land forever,
the doing of it expressed to perfection,
and officials speak in accord with it.
It is teaching a man to speak to the future:
he hears it and becomes a craftsman who is heard.
It is good to speak to the future:
that is what will hear it.
When a good thing comes from one who is boss.
it is continually valid,
and all his wisdom will be eternal.
It is the knowledgeable who helps his ba,
by setting his goodness on earth through it.
The knowledgeable is sated, because of what he knows,
by an official, because of his good deed
through the action of his mind and his tongue.
His lips are accurate when he is speaking,
his eyes when seeing,
and both his ears hearing what is useful for his son;
one who acts in accord with Maat,
being free of lying.