" It was then that the fox appeared.
'Good day,' said the fox.
'Good day,' replied the little prince politely, looking up but unable to see anything.
'Over here,' said the voice, 'under the apple tree.'
'Who are you?' said the little prince. 'You're very pretty.'
'I'm a fox,' said the fox.
'Come and play with me,' suggested the little prince.'I'm terribly sad.'
'I can't play with you,' said the fox. 'I am not tame.'
'Oh! I beg your pardon,' said the little prince.
Then, after a moment's thought, he added:
'What does "tame" mean ?'
'You are not from these parts,' said the fox.'What are you looking for?'
'I'm looking for people. What does "tame" mean ?'
'People,' said the fox, 'they have guns, and they hunt.
It's a great nuisance! They also raise chickens. That is the only interesting thing about them. Are you looking chickens?'
'No,' said the little prince. 'I am looking for friends. What does "tame" mean?'
'Something that is frequently neglected,' said the fox. 'It meam "to create ties".'
'To create ties?'
'Precisely,' said the fox. 'To me, you are still only a small boy, just like a hundred thousand other small boys. And I have no need of you. And you in turn have no need of me.
To you, I'm just a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes.
But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you shall be unique in the world. To you, I shall be unique in the world.'
'I'm beginning to understand,' said the little prince. 'I know a flower... I think she must have tamed me...'
'Quite possible,' said the fox. 'On this Earth one sees all manner of things.'
'Oh! But that was not on Earth,' said the little prince.
The fox looked rather intrigued.
'On another planet, then?'
'Yes'
'I see. Are there huntsmen, on this other planet?'
'No'
'How interesting. And chickens?'
'No.'
'Nothing is perfect,' sighed the fox.
But he resumed his train of thought:
'My life is very monotonous. I run after the chickens; the men run after me. All the chickens are the same, and all the men are the same. Consequently, I get a little bored. but if you tame me, my days will be as if filled with sunlight. I shall know a sound of footstep different from all the rest. Other steps make me run to earth. Yours will call me out of my foxhole like music. And besides, look over there! You see the fields of corn ? Well, I don't eat bread. Corn is of no use for me. Corn fields remind me of nothing. Which is sad! On the other hand, your hair is the colour of gold. So think how wonderful it will be when you have tamed me. The corn, which is golden, will remind me you. And I shall come to love the sound of the wind in the field of corn...."
The fox fell silent and looked steadily at the little prince for a long time.
'Please,' he said, 'tame me!'
'I should like to,' replied the little prince, 'but I don't have much time. I have friends to discover and many things to understand.'
'One only ever understands what one tames. People no longer have the time to understand anything. They buy everything ready-made from the shops. but there is no shop where friends can be bought, so people no longer have friends. If you want a friend, tame me!'
'What do I have to do?' said the little prince.
'You have to be very patient,' replied the fox. 'First, you will sit down a short distance away from me, like that, in the grass. I shall watch you out of the corner of my eye and you will say nothing; words are the source of misunderstandings. But each day you may sit a little closer to me.'
The next day the little prince came back.
'It would have been better to come back at the same time of the day,'said the fox. 'For instance, if you come at four in the afternoon, when three o'clock strikes I shall begin to feel happy. The closer our time approaches, the happier I shall feel. By four o'clock I shall already be getting agitated and worried; I shall be discovering that happiness has its price! But if you show up at any old time, I'll never know when to start dressing my hearth for you... We all need rituals.'
'What is a ritual?' said the little prince.
'Something else that is frequently neglected,' said the fox.
It's what makes one day different from the other days, one hour different from the other hours. There is a ritual, for example, among my huntsmen. On Thursdays they dance with the village girls. So Thursday is a wonderful day for me! I can take a stroll as far as the vineyard. If the huntsmen went dancing at any old time, the days would all be the same, and I should never have a holiday.'
So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the time for him to leave was approaching:
'Oh!' said the fox. 'I am going to cry,'
'It's your own fault,' said the little prince. 'I never wished you any harm; but you wanted me to tame you...'
'I know,' said the fox.
'And now you are going to cry!' said the little prince.
'I know,' said the fox.
'So you have gained nothing from it at all!'
'Yes, I have gained something,' said the fox, 'because of the colour of the corn.'
Then he added:
'Go and look at the roses again. You will understand that yours is, after all, unique in the world. Then come back and say goodbye to me; as a present I will tell you a secret.'
The little prince went off to look at the roses again.
'You are nothing like my rose,' he told them. 'As yet you are nothing at all. Nobody has tamed you, and you have tamed nobody. You are as my fox used to be. he was just a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I made him my friend and now he is unique in the world.'
And the roses felt very unconfortable.
'You are beautiful, but you are empty,' he went on.
'One could not die for you. Of course, an ordinary passer-by would think my rose looked just like you. But in herself she matters more than all of you together, since it is she that I watered; since it is she that I placed under the glass dome; since it is she that I sheltered with the screen; since it is she whose caterpillars I killed (except the two or three we saved up to become butterflies). Since it is she that I linstened to, when she complained, or boasted, or when she was simply being silent. Since it is she who is my rose.'
And he went back to the fox:
'Goodbye,' he said.
'Goodbye,' said the fox. 'Now here is my secret, very simply: you can only see things clearly with your heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye.'
'What is essential is invisible to the eye,' repeated the little prince, so as to remember.
'It is the time you have wasted on your rose that makes your rose so important.'
'It is the time I have wasted on my rose...' repeated the little prince, so as to remember.
'People have forgotten this truth,' said the fox. 'But you must not forget. You become responsible, for ever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose.'
'I am responsible for my rose ...' the little prince repeated, so as to remember.
as it would turn out...
I did not tame the fox
after a week... maybe two weeks of taming efforts
although I was so close I could put salt on the foxes' tail
she withdrew
I felt her withdrawing
I had felt her pull close and then pull away
her hesitancy was as strong as her pull
she pulled towards me
she pulled away
my younger son was told of my worries
the dreaded friend zone
sure enough
after a hike where the body language was clear it came
I got a DM saying a few things including a line that read something like this
"would you still hang out with me if we were only friends"
to which I responded honestly
"yes... but less"
I accepted the friend zone
just as I had respected the foxes hesitancy
beastiality is not my thing
this is a metaphor
she was a human
not a fox
a fox just the same
TMI
too much information
she herself /called us people who share too much
I was very private of my pursuits
did not discuss her or my intentions with anyone except my son
when we hiked on our dateless dates
I took no photos... out of respect for her privacy and for mine
yet foolishly I type here
oh well... this is my therapy
my outlet
and
I trust that this is so many words down the page
NO ONE WILL READ THIS FAR
Gwadzilla GoFundMe Campaign
Donate and Share
or
Ignore
so... into the friend zone
exhausted I went upstairs to my steamy bedroom to take a nap
sending a DM to the fox
"taking a nap... without pillows"
referencing that I had been hugging the pillow thinking of her
more messages
shared links... everything made me think of the fox... if something entertained my brain - I felt that it would entertain her brain... I shared... I had asked if I message too much...
friends do these things!
right?
then later in the weekend
on Sunday... a Sunday that I had no plans as I had left the weekend blank because of the vague a "probably" that the fox had given me about going out this weekend
short text messages and the fox revealed that she was feeling gray
not about me
she was gleeful about our new found friendship
se was gray about other life stuff
so... I called
because she is my friend and I do not want my friend to be sad
we talked... then we talked some more...
I got on with my day while we talked
I drove to walk the dog while we talked
I hiked with the dog in Rock Creek Park
still talking
drove home
still talking
got home
we ended the call
exhausted... I tried to take a nap
this time... with pillows
then realizing
I could not be friends with the fox
not in this moment
this is not how friends feel about friends
a simple Direct Message
"I need to go Cold Turkey - I need to take a week off"
not sure if a fox knows about turkeys... warm or cold
she replied back
"I understand"
boundaries... healthy boundaries
boundary stones
I was clearly addicted
needed to break the addiction
for me... for her... for our friendship
or for our future friendship
we were not friends
we were people in the early stages of a relationship
still thinking about the fox
not about what I did wrong
not obsession about missed opportunities
just thinking about her as there are things in my day that I would like to share
but I do not share
nor do I shelve the idea to share later
I let that idea pass
it is an addiction
and well
I was addicted to the fox
trying to break that addiction
cold turkey is what is best
best for me...
best for the fox
friends?
I was excited to go from 3,400 friends on Facebook
to 3,401
true... not true...
yes... want friends... not sure if we will become friends
time will tell
yes.
I am looking for more friends
that is not what I was looking for in the fox
TMI
I share too much
she shares too much
I should not share so much online
the framed Free Gaza posters that I took down off the wall not to offend her and her strong Pro-Israel stance are back up
maybe I was too nice
I was me
maybe if I had been more dimensions of me
nice guys finish last
nice guys go in the friend zone
the night after my decision to go Cold Turkey I was hiking the dog on the Golf Course in Rock Creek Park
I saw a fox
it caught my eye
I did not chase
I did not follow
I let it go
this is the first time I have thought about the fox on the golf course
I did not obsess on that fox
I will try to no longer obsess about the other fox
not heart broken
just a little let down
maybe more than just a little let down
I thought there was a connection
a deep connection
an unusual compatibility
and
attraction
the fox is hard to read
I guess I read the fox wrong
I know nothing about foxes or how to tame them
best I read The Little Prince Again
