Apprivoiser

There's a word in French that I love: apprivoiser. I first read it years ago in The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. In English it was translated as "to tame", like when the fox says to the little Price "apprivoise-moi" and it got translated into "tame me". I don't think that is the meaning Antoine de Saint-Exupéry meant to convey. To tame implies dominance and an unequal relationship, whereas apprivoiser,especially as used in The Little Prince, and as I understand it, is much closer to: befriend, find affinity with, build intimacy with. If you read The Little Prince in English and "to tame" was the translation for the relationship between the Little Prince and the fox, go back and re-read it with this new translation I'm talking about and I think you'll get a different meaning out of it.

Lately, this word "apprivoiser" has been on my mind, and I came to see it as a key to building close relationships with humans, animals, plants, and with anything, really, that you spend time doing and care about. In fact, I've come to believe that the only way to really know anything is to build this kind of relationship with it.

We're here to build intimacy

with life, and with each other.

Intimacy meaning:

Getting to know, feeling in tune with, trusting, feeling affinity towards,

"Apprivoiser".

Instead of:

controlling, demanding, pushing.

Intimacy with our own life,

and those things and people that we invite in it.

All of which will gently yield their secrets

when befriended.

Peace