currently staring at the sun >_<
field notes ⋆ ✴︎˚ ⋆˙⟡ | the little prince
"All men have the stars ... 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 as no one else has them--
In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night... You--only you--will have stars that can laugh!
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 ... And your friends will be properly astonished to see you laughing as you look up at the sky! Then you will say to them, 'Yes, the stars always make me laugh!' And they will think you are crazy. It will be a very shabby trick that I shall have played on you...
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..."
miscellaneous musings
the king
"One must require from each one the duty which each one can perform," the king went on. "Accepted authority rests first of all on reason. If you ordered your people to go and throw themselves into the sea, they would rise up in revolution. I have the right to require obedience because my orders are reasonable."
most of the first few vignettes presented in "the little prince" are quite humorous, but thinly veil author antoine de saint exupery's clear disdain for most adults (evident by this excerpt from the book's dedication, which reads: "All grown-ups were once children -- although few of them remember it"). the first "grownup" our little prince meets is a king whose ermine cape is so obscenely large that it drapes over nearly the entirety of the planet (asteroid 325), leaving no room for the boy to sit. though the king lords over his rock with a "magnificent air of authority," he ultimately has no purpose as any kind of monarch since, amusingly, he is the sole inhabitant of his planet.
although he'd rather believe otherwise, this king is not a particularly good ruler. of course, he is a good man and does not give unreasonable orders, but the few commands he does have the opportunity to hand out are inevitabilities anyway. and so, what is his purpose? what does he actually control?
is it so bad, however, to pretend that things are actually within our control when they aren't? though this vignette reads as an obvious jab at the illusion of control and power that many adults seem to blindly pursue, i find myself feeling sympathetic towards this character. being able to "predict" and latch onto events i know will occur, despite not having real control over their course, can be comforting.
the conceited man
"To admire means that you regard me as the handsomest, the best-dressed, the richest, and the most intelligent man on this planet."
"I admire you," said the little prince, shrugging his shoulders slightly, "but what is there in that to interest you so much?"
okay unfortunately upon re-read, this excerpt hits closer to home than my initial reading of the text. shorter than the previous vignette, this chapter similarly highlights the ridiculousness of the conceited man's desires. despite having done nothing to deserve praise from the little prince, the conceited man begs him for admiration anyway.
i think why the aboves lines strike something deeper in me is because of my utterly consuming desire to be liked by (for lack of a better term) randoms. in particular, "what is there in that to interest you so much?" has mildly rewired my own thinking. i'm too often paralyzed by wondering if others like me, but the fact is that it truly does not really do anything but torture me to constantly conduct myself according to what i believe would be most likable or admirable. for example, partially why i found it difficult to step away from my student org was this thought that my team would look down on me for quitting. these people weren't my friends, really, though. so then why did it matter to me how much they liked me, other than that it might've been more comforting to believe that they do even when i hadn't put in the time or effort to create a relationship worthy of any admiration?
the tippler
a very short vignette on cycles of self-destruction (spanning just about one page!), the little prince meets the tippler who, trapped in his shame and guilt, is drinking to forget that he is ashamed of drinking. it truly isn't enough to simply acknowledge a problem, but you must take considerable strides to break out of destructive patterns. sure, acknowledgement is the first step -- but as seen with the tippler, it is easier to simply feel ashamed and look for an easy way out using excuses or escapism.
i might have more to say about this later, but ironically i am also drunk while writing this.
the lamplighter
the well
on matters of consequence
the businessman
the geographer
on matters of love
"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."
"What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important."
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