28.9.15

ties

What does that mean--'tame'?

... It means to establish ties."



"'To establish ties'?"

"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world . . ."

"I am beginning to understand," said the little prince.



A sad irony. Man most famous for writing a book about a plane crash, himself dies a few years later in a plane crash. Such is the story of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of the Little Prince. Writers write what they know about but in this case he wrote about what he would know later in life. Sadly too many know Saint-Expurey only for that one work.


The story of the fox and the prince in Chapter 21 of the Little Prince is one that can be applied throughout aspects of life beyond just relationships, as it was with the fox and prince. Through routines we tame ourselves.


I've felt my whole life like I was different. As a child it was true, true to me and evidently true. I had "exceptionalism" - but all children feel that way. As a teen I hated being different and as a young adult I fought being different - reminding myself that no one is really that unique. I stopped feeling exceptional. I started to fit in on the fringe. But this all changed. There was no one moment or cause, but over time, I realized once again that I am different. Part of it is - I hate routines. I'll always try new things. I like nostalgia, but I don't like to relive things exactly the way they happened before.


This "wrinkle" in me, as I've wrinkled, is relieving. Advertising is worthless toward me, in print, on "television" - I don't have the appeal to things I'm supposed to have, as if it lacks in my DNA. It's blissful to realize this. Nothing plastic, nothing owned is cherished to me - unless there is a human-related reason or memory associated with it.


When I walk into the coffee shop, I don't want "the regular"; I try new things every time. I don't show up at the same time, don't work out at the same time. I don't listen to music solely from when I was 18-25 and think music today "sucks". 


Most people think of the path the earth takes as a circle around the sun. A circle that repeats itself. Same things each time each year. Family traditions. Doing things that would seem slower, backwards or inefficient, other than for the repetition of swing's past. But that is not how the earth really moves - it's only how it moves relative to the sun. The sun itself is moving. The path of the earth relative to the black hole at the center of the milky way is more like an old telephone cord (with very small loops). 




So I isolate through the universe in space-time along some other path, not afraid to ask questions.



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