The Little Prince, by de Saint-Exupéry

I recently read The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, for the first time in a few decades. It's a great book, short, with illustrations, and ostensibly written for children. Well, OK, but the message is really for adults.

What is the message? The message is that what's really important isn't money, or power, but beauty in nature, and relationships with others:

Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them. (8)

Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or primeval forests, or stars. I would bring myself down to his level. I would talk to him about bridge, and golf, and politics, and neckties. And the grown-up would be greatly pleased to have met such a sensible man. (9)

Good message, except that it leaves out having a relationship with the God who created boa constrictors, primeval forests, and stars.

The author was a French aviator, who went down in the Sahara. The book takes place in the Sahara, but it is about an encounter between the author and a mysterious boy, apparently from one of the asteroids.

Thanks for reading. Read The Little Prince.