Lessons on Men from “The Little Prince”: Here on Earth

Wednesday, November 12th 2008 by Shanel Yang

The Little Prince is the classic children’s book that has many lessons to teach all of us, including adults, about the wonders of being alive, love, and friendship—and about the folly of most adults who fail to appreciate all these things. It was written by Antoine de Saint-Exupery and first published in 1943.

As the story goes, the little prince was a boy who was the only human inhabitant of a tiny island. His life was simple there, filled with various chores and simple pleasures, such as watching sunsets after his work was done. Until one day, a beautiful rose appeared and he fell in love with her. But, the rose was rather moody and difficult to get along with—what we would call today, “high-maintenance.” And, so, he decided to leave her and see what he could find in the rest of the universe, as he had never before left his tiny planet.

On his adventure, he first encountered a series of men, one on each of their own tiny planets. (But, scientists would call them “asteroids.”) There were six such tiny planets/asteroids in all, on which he met the king, the very vain man, the drunkard, the businessman, the lamplighter, and the geographer. After learning about each of them, he finally came to a seventh planet, our very own planet Earth, where the rest of the story takes place (though I’ll share only his initial thoughts about it here and let you find out the rest for yourself from the fantastic little book that has charmed generation after generation, both young and old, all around our globe):

PEOPLE ON EARTH FROM THE LITTLE PRINCE

The seventh planet, then, was the Earth.

The Earth is not just another planet! It contains one hundred and eleven kings (including, of course, the African kings), seven thousand geographers, nine-hundred thousand businessmen, seven-and-a-half million drunkards, three-hundred-eleven million vain men; in other words, about two billion grown-ups.

To give you a notion of the Earth’s dimensions, I can tell you that before the invention of electricity, it was necessary to maintain, over the whole of six continents, a veritable army of four-hundred-sixty-two thousand, five hundred and eleven lamplighters.

Seem from some distance, this made a splendid effect. The movements of this army were ordered like those of a ballet. First came the turn of the lamplighters of New Zealand and Australia; then these, having lit their street lamps, would go home to sleep. Next it would be the turn of the lamplighters of China and Siberia to perform their steps in the lamplighters’ ballet, and of the lamplighters of Russia and India. Then those of Africa and Europe. Then those of South America, and of North America. And they never missed their cues for their appearances onstage. It was awe-inspiring.

Only the lamplighter of the single street lamp at the North Pole and his colleague of the single street lamp at the South Pole led carefree, idle lives: They worked twice a year.

CONCLUSION

Draw what conclusions you will about what kind of people live here on planet Earth and what kind you are now and perhaps would like to be in the future. If greater the discrepancy between these two pictures, the greater your unhappiness must be. But, it’s never to late to start bridging that gap. Start your own journey to discover what is most important to you. The little prince traveled the universe, but all you have to do is seek the answers within yourself. One way is to perform the exercises in the “All About You!” series. Watch movies about how to succeed in life. Read quotes about big dreams. Do something! Go looking for clues to your life’s purpose. And, when you find it, really put all of your mind, heart, and body into it!

Currently, there are about 6.7 billion people on our planet. What other types of adults are there besides the six that the little prince described? Modern thinkers have described other unpleasant personalities to avoid, too, such as sponges, backstabbers, critics, and control freaks—among many others. Let’s not take the miracle of our lives and squander too much of it by either giving too much of our precious time to these adults who seem to be wasting theirs or by becoming one of them ourselves. Let’s be vigilant with our time and other valuable resources to make the most of this priceless gift of existence on our big, beautiful, blue planet!

If you want a copy of The Little Prince for your own personal library, click here.

[For “Lessons on Men from ‘The Little Prince’: The King,” click here.]

[For “Lessons on Men from ‘The Little Prince’: The Very Vain Man,” click here.]

[For “Lessons on Men from ‘The Little Prince’: The Drunkard,” click here.]

[For “Lessons on Men from ‘The Little Prince’: The Businessman,” click here.]

[For “Lessons on Men from ‘The Little Prince’: The Lamplighter,” click here.]

[For “Lessons on Men from ‘The Little Prince’: The Geographer,” click here.]

[For all the “Lessons from ‘The Little Prince,’” click here.]

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[For “Love Letter from ‘Griffin & Sabine,’” click here.]

[For “Lessons from the ‘Sunscreen Speech,’” click here.]

[For entire “Lessons On” series, click here.]