Looking at a dream, for instance, involves saying: ‘It came from you, it is of you. You are committed to it whether you want to be or not. Now own it!’ And similarly with looking at the etymology of a word: This is where the word came from. The etymology is there, like a ghost, haunting the meaning of the word. The word can’t be uttered without summoning the ghost of the etymology. It had better be owned by the user.
But this too: Owning a dream, or the etymology of a word, is not a straightforward business. For there is no routine of owning it; there is no on-the-surface mastery. The etymology rather works in the dusky background of the word, the dream too works in the unlit corners of consciousness. Owning them requires creativity and imagination, possibly metaphorical thinking; it requires coming to own, finding a way to own. And it does not always end up in routine ownership, just as owning a metaphor does not need to end up in a literal routine.