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"One sees clearly with only the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eye" (The Little Prince, p. 63)
In the Little Prince, the prince visits earth from the asteroid B-612. He is in the desert where he meets the book's narrator. The prince proceeds to relate his story to the narrator (pilot). He tells the pilot about all of the self-impressed and self-important people that he meets on his way to earth. But it is the fox that he meets is his most significant encounter. The fox tells the prince that love is from the heart. It's not tangible like the trees. The fox also says that love is in the "taming" of the person that you meet. Here is where the prince brags about his rose on his asteroid. He protects this rose because she only has "two thorns" and can't defend herself against the hungry sheep. To prove his point, the fox sends the prince to another location where there are more roses that look exactly like the prince's rose. The prince becomes upset by this. He realizes that his rose isn't unique. It's one of many. But the fox explains to the prince that it's what he feels for the rose that makes her special to him. He has formed a relationship with the rose, thereby, taming her. The prince and the fox also form a bond and this saddens the fox because he knows the prince is leaving soon. The prince has "tamed" the fox and the fox will therefore miss his friend. Are we like the little prince in the way we see people? If I stand on a stage at a concert, I will see a sea of people. God has created us. Right now, the world’s population is at seven billion. But if at this concert I look into the audience and recognize my mother, I feel my love for her because my relationship with my mother is unique. Even though God created us, He made us unique to each other. No two personalities are identical to the other. We may have similar tastes in music, people, etc. but our personalities are unique. However, every person that our lives touch, makes that person unique to us. People are a dime a dozen but a loved one is very special. We're special to God. He knows us personally: our name, where we live, what we had for breakfast and many other facts about us. God is in some sense part of a group (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). He is all three but He is also one. He is Unique in that there is no one else like Him. He sees us with Heart and He has a relationship with us whether we acknowledge it or not. Uniqueness is not a bad thing. It indicates that we are special and there is no one else like us. Individualism is the problem. We live separate lives from each other. We don't take the time to see with our hearts when we meet others or even to attempt to meet others. We are limited by our faulty human mind. We see with our physical eyes but ignore our heart's eyes. It's hard to see with the heart. It takes imagination. In The Little Prince, the prince climbs up a mountain and shouts out loud. His echo comes back to him. He believes that he is speaking with someone and they are only repeating his words. This prompts him to say: "What a peculiar planet! he thought. It's all dry and sharp and hard. And people here have no imagination. They repeat whatever you say to them." (The Little Prince, p. 54). The prince concludes that adults have no memory of the joy of imagination. They see what is needed. The pilot tells us that adults lose something when they grow up. For instance, the prince meets a man who counts the stars. He starts all over every day, not realizing that the universe is infinite and that maybe he should enjoy the stars by guessing how many there are rather than count them. At the beginning of The Little Prince, the pilot talks about a Turkish astronomer who made a discovery. When the astronomer went to present his paper in his cultural garb, the astronomer was not taken seriously. Many years later, the Turkish astronomer presented the same paper years later in a western style three-piece suit and was taken seriously. Because the astronomer spoke before adults, they lacked the imagination to see through his cultural garb and to see him as the person he was. It's only when he became an individual that he was finally noticed. His uniqueness was not recognized by the adults because they saw with their eyes and not with their hearts. Love is unique in that we all experience it. It's our love for others and our environment that distinguishes us from the seven billion other people around us. It's the love that we express towards others that is unique; whether they are friends, family, or strangers. And by extension of that love, we treat people as if they are special and not an individual because as God's creatures, He dwells in each and every one of us. "For me you're only a little boy just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you have no need of me, either. For you, I'm only a fox like a hundred other foxes. But if you tame me, we'll need each other. You'll be the only boy in the world for me. I'll be the only fox in the world form you..." (The Little Prince, p. 59). And this is God’s dialogue to us everyday whether we acknowledge Him or not because we are the only one for Him and He is the only One for us!
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