The Little Prince
. . .
[The little prince said] “I too am going to go home today. . . It is much further. It is much more difficult.”
Then I realized that something extraordinary was happening.
I was holding him close in my arms as if he were a little child. And yet it seemed to me that he was rushing headlong toward an abyss from which I could do nothing to restrain him. . . . Once again I felt myself frozen by the sense of something irreparable. And I knew that I could not bear the thought of never hearing that laughter anymore. For me it was like a spring of fresh water in the desert.
. . .
“The thing that is important to know is the thing that is not seen. . .”
“And at night you will look up at the stars. Where I live is so small that I cannot show you where my star is to be found. It is better, like that. My star will be just one of the stars, for you. And so you will love to watch all the stars in the heavens. . . They will all be your friends. And, besides, I am going to make you a present.”
He laughed again.
“Ah, little prince, dear little prince! I love to hear that laughter!”
“That is my present. Just that. It will be as it was when we drank the water. . . “
“What are you trying to say?”
“All men have the stars,” he answered, “but they are not the same things for different people. . . . You—you alone—will have stars as no one else has them—
“And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows) you will be content that you have known me. You will always be my friend. You will want to laugh with me. And you will sometimes open your window, so, for that pleasure. . . . It will be as if, in place of the stars, I had given you a great number of little bells that knew how to laugh. . .”
“I shall look as if I were suffering. I shall look a little as if I were dying. It is like that. Do not come to see that. It is not worth the trouble. . . . It was wrong of you to come. You will suffer. I shall look as if I were dead and that will not be true. . .”
I said nothing.
“You understand . . . it is too far. I cannot carry this body with me. It is too heavy. But it will be like an old abandoned shell. There is nothing sad about old shells.”
He was a little discouraged. But he made one more effort:
“You know it will be very nice. I too will look at the stars. All the stars will be wells with a rusty pulley.
All the stars will pour out fresh water for me to drink.”
“That will be so amusing. You will have five hundred million little bells and I will have five hundred million springs of fresh water.
_____
Joseph and I shared this passage from The Little Prince in the late 1990s with friends and family to honor the passing of his father Joseph, his sister Bonnie, & his Great Dane Brenda.
I read it to him to honor his life and send him off to his next grand adventure.
When you look up at the wondrous night sky, may this passage remind you of Joseph and his love of flowers, flying, and adventure.
