January 30, 2004 "You talk like the grown-ups!"
That made me a little ashamed. But he added, mercilessly:
"You confuse everything.. You've got it al mixed up!" He was really very annoyed. He tossed his gold curls in the wind. "I know a planet inhabited by a red-faced gentleman. He's never smelled a flower. He's never looked at a star. He's never loved anyone. He's never done anything except add up numbers. And all day long he says over and over, just like you, "I'm a serious man! I'm a serious man!" And that puffs him up with pride. But he's not a man at all- he's a mushroom!"
"He's a what?"
"A mushroom!" The little prince was now quite pale with rage. "For millions of year flowers have been producing thorns. For millions of years sheep have been eating them all the same. And it's not serious, trying to understand why flowers go to such trouble to produce thorns that are good for nothing? It's not important, the war between the sheep and the flowers? It's no more serious and more important than the numbers that fat red gentleman is adding up?..." He couldn't say another word. All of a sudden he burst out sobbing. Night had fallen. I took him in my arms. I rocked him. I didn't know what to say. How clumsy I felt! I didn't know how to reach him, where to find him... It's so mysterious, the land of tears."
Yeah, that's about how I feel, too. Thanks to The Little Prince for that wonderfully worded passage.
