| "Tu es responsable pour toujours de ce que tu as approvoise." Le Renard en "Le Petit Prince" Antoine de St. Exupery. |
I first read "The Little Prince" in the original French when I was taking French in high school. There is magic and wisdom in St.Exupery's writing. Sometimes I will spend hours rolling a single line of it around my head just contemplating the meaning behind it. When I later read the book in English, I was disappointed. Something was lost. For example, the quote from the Fox above is often translated as "You are responsible forever for that which you tame." But "tame" is not quite the right word. And yet it is hard to find one right word in English which will do. That quote condenses one of the lessons of the book into a single sentence. That lesson is that once we take someone into our life to any degree we then bare some responsibility for their feelings towards us -- forever.
Some might argue with this and say that others are responsible for their own feelings. While that is true, emotions rarely brew up without some interaction and some encouragement, and for that we are responsible.
Even in past relationships which may not have ended on the best of terms, we have a responsibility not to let our anger cloud the fact that the prior relationship creates a sensitivity that allows us to wound the other person more easily as well and we have a responsibility not to do that.
In new relationships there is a responsibility, too.
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