The Little Prince

I saw one of my students reading "The Little Prince" and I got disproportionately emotional. I was so excited for her. The journey she is about to take is so wonderful. What I would give to go back to read "The Little Prince" for the first time again.

I undoubtedly spooked her out with my enthusiasm... or maybe she's used to her slightly odd teacher by now. But in any case, she consented to me telling her my story which goes like this:

The first time I read "The Little Prince" was back in kindergarten. It was back in the day when my mom would take me to the bookstore and we'd spend the afternoon there. She had only one rule: pick ONE book to buy. And it was a great rule. I would spend what to a child seems like forever picking out the book that I'd REALLY want, a book I had already fallen in love with. And I would devour that book and my mom would take me back to the bookstore for another book. I am sure my mom nudged me in certain directions while narrowing down the choice because I read everything from science fiction to poetry and I am sure I wasn't that interdisciplinary as a child.

Anyway, I think what I picked "The Little Prince" because it was such a pretty book with interesting and intriguing pictures. And I loved reading it. I remember it impressed the adults too. For me though it was a fantastic adventure story and with the little prince as my companion, I flew through the galaxy. It was a happy and exciting book... funny too with its tiny star and the gigantic baobobs.

I then read it again at the suggestion of a junior high friend in the seventh grade. And this time, the book had transformed itself. No longer was it an adventure story. I think I didn't even notice that I was traveling from one star to another. What interested me this time were the characters. And it made me ponder about the different adults in the world and if I wanted to be like any of them. It made me wonder about the different lives people lead and why we do nonsensical things. The little prince this time introduced me to myriad of people and gave me a lot to consider as I started my adolescence.

The third time I read the book was about a year ago. I missed my little companion and so I picked up the copy at the Strand. Finally, I saw that this was a sad book. The book was about, above all else, love and relationships. The love between the prince and the rose, the friendship between the prince and the pilot, and the asymmetrical, perhaps therapeutic, relationship between the prince and the fox. Attaching to someone, or "taming" as they say in the book, leads inevitably to pain because all relationships are transient. But when we are finally consoled, because as is told in the book we are all eventually consoled, we will be glad to have had the intimacy. A love profoundly changes you and your relationship to the world.

So my student heard me go on like this. And I hope I motivated her to read easy and hard books because the books have a lot to offer us independent of our capacity for understanding. I wonder what she will get from the book having grown up in different surroundings, and having different heartbreaks and challenges than me.