day 12.
"What does that mean -- tame?"
"It is an act too often neglected", said the fox. "It means to establish ties."
"My life is very monotonous," the fox said. "I hunt chickens: men hunt me. All the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike. But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. And look...The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me. The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back to the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wheat in the wind..."
So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near...
"Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."
"It is your own fault," said the little prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you..."
"Yes, that is so," said the fox.
"But now you are going to cry." said the little prince.
"Yes, that is so," said the fox.
"Then it has done you no good at all!"
"It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields."
--- antoine de saint-exupery (the little prince)
one of my very favorites.
5 comments:
tears.
that picture is perfect. seriously perfect.
and what makes it even more perfect is the fact that it was taken before the digital age. actual film.
maybe a little jonah in a few years? beauty.
"It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields." -- so true.
bryce wrote a song for his brother after his wife had passed away and in it he wrote:
"that all is fair in love and war is true,
it hurts to lose,
but it's better that you did
than never knew."
still in our prayers.
love you.
I want to go back to that house, curl up in the grass in the back yard, and just remember. every speck that can be soaked up.
I want to watch her find potato bugs.
"It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields."
i'll go with you.
"It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields."
i got this book last weekend. i've read it twice now. i know my lessons aren't your lessons but the part of this chapter that neon lighted me was when the fox explained the taming.
"you have to be very patient," the fox answered. "first, you'll sit down a little ways away from me, over there, in the grass. i'll watch you out of the corner of my eye, and you won't say anything. language is the source of misunderstandings. but day by day, you'll be able to sit a little closer..."
language will never be able to convey how love and loss really truly a/effects us, and each of us process those way too similar emotions differently, so take this with a grain of salt... but maybe this mortality, the b that it is, is really us just sitting a little ways away, trying to figure out how our language really works. somehow that comforts me.
love you.
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