My French is strictly schoolboy. I still remember using it for the first time to an actual French person.
It was 1986 when I descended the steps of the Amsterdam to Paris bus. We had entered the countryside of France, and it was time for a 5am pit stop for the weary passengers.
I took my seat in a small-town cafe, percolating with voices speaking words I didn’t understand. Mentally rehearsing, loins girded, I watched the waiter approaching. This was it.
The middle-aged man in a stained apron raised an eyebrow at me, which in any language meant, ‘What do you want?’
I heard myself respond.
“Un café au lait, s’il vous plaît.”
He nodded, “Et un croissant?”
“Oui…et un croissant.”
Mon Dieu! I had successfully conducted a complete transaction in French.
Looking around the cafe, it seemed that no one had grasped the significance of what had just occurred. But I felt like Napoleon. Sure, about 6 inches taller. And much more likely to order a crème brûlée while intending to ask directions to the bathroom.
Still, that brief moment of linguistic triumph left me with a lifelong fondness for French phrases. And not just the ones that deal with pastry consumption. Our Gallic friends have a wonderful ability to capture complex ideas in a few elegant words.
Savoir-faire means you have social finesse.
A tour de force means you’ve accomplished something impressive.
And a ménage à trois means you’re…very busy.
Recently, I discovered another French phrase. One that I feel can be enormously useful in dealing with humanity’s present predicament.
Reculer pour mieux sauter
It means: “to step back in order to jump further”. It is often used to mean taking a step back in order to see a situation better and then coming back stronger. Taking a temporary pause or a retreat so we can see more clearly and then take more effective action than we would have done if we had just ploughed on.
If we glance around the world at the moment, we might be forgiven for thinking we have collectively slipped on an evolutionary banana peel. War. Division. Greed. Abuse. Corruption. Homo Sapiens aren’t being terribly sapient.
Faced with such overwhelming challenges, it would be easy to succumb to despair and resign ourselves to a regressive trajectory. But instead of surrendering to being a backward species, we can get our reculer pour mieux sauter on.
We can use this time to take a clear-eyed look at the problems of our present reality and then leap forward by creating something more evolved. More meaningful, uplifting, and fun.
We can now see many ugly things with disturbing clarity. These mask-off moments can repel us. The exposure can be horrific.
But by stepping back and taking an unflinching look at the many unsettling problems that tarnish our present reality, we can then resolve to choose a different future. With enhanced understanding, we empower ourselves to design and implement solutions that are not merely reactive but fundamentally transformative.
Stepping back creates space.
Space to see clearly.
Space to think more wisely.
Space to design a vision of a more compassionate, ethical, equitable, and sustainable world that we jump forward to make a reality.
And as we prepare to launch, I think there’s another French phrase we should keep in mind.
Joie de vivre
The joy of life. The exuberant expression of who we are when we align with who we truly are at our essence.
I’ve spent my entire career promoting this concept. And I want our children to inherit a world infused with this uplifting quality.
If that is to happen, we must first step back and see clearly what we no longer want.
Then we leap forward together.
With wiser minds, open hearts, and perhaps the occasional croissant.
Happy Elevation, Anthony
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