Little Prince-what is the star in your life?

Why I recommend reading Little Prince as an adult

I just finished reading the Little Prince. I read it as a kid, but didn’t remember much except some famous quotes such as “what is essential is invisible to the eye.” This time I felt like a kid again, crying at the good-bye between the Flower and the little prince. I think that depending on what kind of mood you are in the same phrase will give you different emotions or insight.

I learned many different lessons and experienced different perspective of life indirectly through eyes of the little prince.

If I have told you these details about the asteroid, and made a note of its number for you, it is on account of the grown-ups and their ways. When you tell them that you have made a new friend, they never ask you any questions about their essential matters. They never say to you, “What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Des he collect butterflies?” Instead, they demand: “How old is he? How many brothers has he? How much does he weight? How much money does his father make?” Only from these figures do they think they have learned anythng about him.

To the little prince, essential matters about a friend are not about status, or wealth. He seems naive, and yet wise. He reminds me of days during youth when I was sheltered under the protection of our parents and didn’t face harsh realities of this world. I didn’t understand why some parents would ask their kids what size of an apartment their friends live in. I think that some facts that appear on their profile such as their status may allow for affluent lifestyles or better road to success, but at the end of the day you ask yourself “what do I see in my friends that I respect and love about them”? Isn’t it what matters after all?

The proud Flower says below.

Well, I must endure the presence of two or three caterpillars if I wish to become acquanted with the butterflies.

It can take hard working and unpleasant experiences to be able to enjoy beautiful things. Some things can be granted without much sacrifice on your end such as the happy family in which you are born. But many times life is not about just receiving, but you need to work your way to earn the things you want. If you endure a few caterpillars, you will some day meet the beautiful butterflies which fly to you.

The king who is authoritative and wants to govern all things in the universe says below.

“Then you shall judge yourself,” the king answered. “that is the most difficult thing of all. It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom.”

King Solomon in the bible was a wise king who asked God for wisdom which God granted. He was respected greatly and he accumulated insurmountable riches through his wisdom. But I think that he didn’t judge himself rightly, and that led to his self-destruction. He had hundreds of wives and concubines some of who brought idols from other countries. He was enticed to worship the idol gods, and later became a sinful king who turned away from God. Judging others may be easy at times, but succeeding in judging oneself rightly without self-deprecating is the challenging and rewarding thing.

And now the famous quote from the Fox from the Little Prince!

“To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other litlte 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…”

The Fox wanted to be tamed by the little prince so they can be unique to each other in the world. That means making a friendship. When you somehow establish a relationship with someone (whether friends or boyfriend/girlfriend), you tend to their needs, spend time and energy to learn about them, appreciate their presence, and get attached. That is being tamed, and you will soon discover needing presence of those people in your life. This is an amazing feeling. One has to have some luck to find a ‘good-hearted’ person to tame, but whoever you tame, the person tamed becomes someone special to you.

I think that the book the Little Prince should be recommended to be read by adults more than kids. As we grow older and experience secular things in life, it is inevitable that we become more realistic, letting go of unreachable things and holding onto necessities. I don’t think that is a depressing thing, and it is part of the growing pains. But as the adults so fixated into ‘matters of consequences’ whom the Little Prince encountered show, our lives are sometimes too focused on visible things that we miss the essential invisible things.

And as we are too constrained by time and resources to waste for anyone we deemed out of our league, we rarely make others outside of our immediate circle important in our lives .

“Goodbye,” said the fox. “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”

The quote is saying ‘wasted time’, but it is spoken from perspective of adults who think they are wasting time for others. When you invest time into getting to know someone, the time is not wasted. While writing this, I feel like I am contradicting myself because I am usually reluctant to spend much time to make new friends. My mindset needs to change first to give a chance to those who want to get to know me as I was given a chance by others to become their friends.

“All men hae the stars,” he answered, “but they are not the same things for different people. For some, who are travelers, the stars are guides. For others they are no more than little lights in the sky. For others, who are scholars, they are problems. For my businessman they were wealth. But all these stars are silent. You—you alone—will have the stars no one else has them—’

What is the Star in your life?