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Idiom: The wheels are turning
Whenever things begin to move or plans start to progress, you may hear someone say the wheels are turning.
Keep in mind they are not only talking about cars, trains, bicycles and rollerblades.
More often than not, they are referring to the wheels of progress and industry.
All large projects require much planning.
During the planning stages, nothing may seem to be happening at all.
At this point, those who are not involved in the planning believe nothing is being done and may become frustrated with the perceived lack of progress.
Once the wheels are turning, however, significant changes occur quickly.
One thing I have noticed in Japan is that the planning stage for anything and everything often takes longer than it does in Canada.
It may only be me, but it seems that in the initial stages, things happen at a glacial pace here.
However, once things are planned out, everyone has agreed to the plans in very long meetings, which begin late on Friday afternoons, and all documentation has been signed, stamped, checked and distributed in triplicate to all parties involved; the wheels turn rather quickly.
Whew! I challenge you to try and read that sentence with no commas.
If you don’t pass out, you will be blue in the face.
You may hear people in the West say the wheels are turning when a plan has been put into motion, and it is now too late to change or stop it.
It’s a way of saying that whatever you want to say, keep it to yourself because it’s too late to change anything anyway.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 73.
The higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100, the easier the passage is to read.