The Little Prince Part 7 + special bonus reading
Finale! Time to say farewell to our starry souled friend.
We got there pals! And what a joyous adventure - I really hope you’ve enjoyed this series as much as I have. This story is so delicately powerful I know it is one I will return to every year. In the creating of this series I must have read it at least five times and each time I got something different out of it, its layers are fathoms deep.
I have intentionally kept the last few posts brief because for me more than anything, this is a story about listening. And to have brought it to you in audio makes my heart very glad because that understanding is one I am only just fully arriving at. The Little Prince is a being who listens deeply. He has no interest in talking about himself but a great interest in learning about and from others and by osmosis, passes on a great deal.
He embodies the innocence of the child but the longing of the adult — to understand the world we live in and to find our place within it. The Little Prince doesn’t question whether or not he belongs, his perspective is explicitly pure which I mean in its truest sense not with the puritanical dogma it has been widely adopted and exploited for, but as wide-eyed and expansive as light. It contains infinite worlds and possibilities. It’s almost as if he is the soul and everything else that he encounters is the ego; not just the people but the fauna, the flora, the land, the infrastructure (the capitalism?). For me this story acknowledges not only how challenging it is for us to interact with one another within all these conventions and constructs but also how we might rediscover and sustain our truest selves despite them. It is reflected in the beautiful simplicity of Antoine de Saint Exupery’s illustration as much as the simplicity of the Little Prince’s legacy, to remind ourselves of what matters most: a return to self, pure of heart; and to never, ever, listen to grown ups — but also respect your elders too, right? ;)
Thank you so much for coming on this journey with me. For all the previous editions of this series and to learn more about the book, click here.
And on that note, I give you the final part of The Little Prince with a cheeky little bonus gabble afterwards from me. Happy, Happy Sunday!