FAMILIES MATTER

I recently re-read the children’s classic, “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. If you have not come across this literature, go to the library, get a copy and prepare for a spiritual feast.

The story is couched in the setting of the author having had to land his plane in the Sahara Desert to repair the engine. In the desert, while he is trying to get his engine repaired, fearing that he will run out of water, he encounters a small person that he learns is actually a prince from another planet. The planet is so small that its only inhabitants are the little prince, a rose, and a tree which if allowed to grow will engulf the planet.

The Little Prince not only meets the author, he also meets a fox. And he asks the fox to play with him. “I cannot play with you,” says the fox, “I am not tamed.” “What does that mean, tamed?” asks the Prince.

“It is an act too often neglected,” said the fox. “It means to establish ties. To me you are still nothing more than a boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. I have no need of you and you have no need of me. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all of the world.”

“I am beginning to understand,” said the Little Prince. “There is a rose on my planet. I think she has tamed me. She is unique in all the world to me.”

“If you want a friend,” said the Fox, “tame me.”

“What must I do to tame you?”

“First you will sit down at a little distance from me - like that - in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me every day.”

So day after day the Little Prince came and moved closer and closer to the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near - “Ah,” said the fox, “I shall cry.”

“It is your own fault,” said the Little Prince. “I never wished you any sort of harm; but you insisted that I tame you.”

“Yes, that is so,” said the fox, “but your taming me has done me good.” Go and look again at the roses and you will understand. Then come back to say goodbye to me and I will make you a present of a secret.”

The Little Prince went away to look again at the roses. “You are not at all like my rose,” he said. “As yet you mean nothing to me. No one has tamed you and you have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made him my friend and now he is unique in all the world.”

When he went back to meet the fox, he said, “Goodbye.”

“Goodbye,” said the fox. “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: ‘It is the time you have wasted with your rose that makes your rose so important.’ Men have forgotten this truth, but you must not forget it.”

IT IS THE TIME YOU HAVE WASTED WITH YOUR ROSE THAT MAKES YOUR ROSE UNIQUE IN ALL THE WORLD.

I know that you are busy. Everyone is. But it is eternally important that you “waste some time” with a spouse, a child, a friend. To fail to do so is to have no one who is uniquely important you. Just do it!