'Little Prince' for child in all of us
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E-mail shanghaidaily.com, August 8, 2016
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Zhu Hong is a retired professor from the China Academy of Social Sciences. Shanghai Daily condensed her article. She lives in Beijing. |
It was by now the eighth day since the pilot had crash-landed on the desert and met the Little Prince, and his supply of water was exhausted. The two friends decided to look for water in the desert. The Little Prince seemed inspired as he stated that what makes the desert beautiful is that it hides a well somewhere, just as what makes a house beautiful is that it hides an ancient secret somewhere within its walls.
As if by a miracle, the two friends eventually found a well in the desert, and the Little Prince summed up his thoughts on planet Earth: "People grow five thousand roses in one garden… but don't find what they are looking for. And yet what they are looking for can be found in a single rose, or in a little water!" He added: "Eyes are blind, you have to look with the heart."
By now he was ready to return to his little planet and rejoin his Rose. The Pilot, too, had fixed his engine and was ready to resume his flight.
As they made ready the next morning to say a last goodbye, the Pilot caught the little Prince talking to a snake. The snake was going to make good on his promise to help the Little Prince, actually, to help him die.
Why? Because he realized that his Rose was dead. He wanted to join her up among the stars. And the snake could help.
The Little Prince's message is about the importance of seeing, understanding, caring and giving.
One cannot help seeing the irony of how the Little Prince had his eyes opened by a fox in order to understand relationships, and was then reunited with his beloved Rose by sacrificing himself to the snake.
If we see the world with the eyes of the Little Prince, we see adults who are arrogant and selfish and silly and greedy; they spoil the world for the next generation.
As we fight creeping wrinkles to stay young, we should fight harder to retain the child in us and find our own Rose.
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