One day, I watched the sun setting forty-four times

Grown ups deal with figures, losing insights to anything else that is not made up of statistics. I never want to deal with figures. I want to be able to explain to you what I’ve experienced and felt without using numbers. I want to tell you how genuine the old man was, when he asked me to touch his hand, to lead his hand for guidance because he could not see or hear. How helpless he was, that he had to rely on deep trust with strangers to take out money from his wallet. How I had to touch his hand to guide him where to sign for an amount that he could not read on paper because he could not see, or an amount that I could not tell him because he could not hear. He signed away, giving his trust to me. I packed his books and handed it to him, embarrassed because of greed but grateful that he could not see it in my eyes. I did not want to take his money. I wanted to give it to him for free and help him walk out of the book store.

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The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, p21-22.

When you talk to them about a new friend, they never ask questions about essential matters. They never say to you: ‘What does his voice sound like? What games does he prefer? Does he collect butterflies?’ They ask you: ‘How old is he? How many brothers does he have? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father earn?’ It is only then that they feel they know him. If you were to mention to grown ups: ‘I’ve seen a beautiful house built with pink bricks, with geraniums on the windowsills and doves on the roof…’ they would not be able to imagine such as house. You would have to say to them: ‘I saw a house worth a hundred thousand pounds.’ Then they would exclaim: ‘Oh! How lovely.’ … But, of course, for those of us who understand life, we could not care less about figures. I should have liked to start this story like a fairy tale. I should have liked to say: ‘Once upon a time there was a little prince who lived on a planet scarcely bigger than himself and who had need of a friend.’ For those who understand what life is all about, it would seemed closer to the truth.

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How much of a grown up are you? Based on this, I’m glad I haven’t grown yet. I hope I continue to understand life this way for a longer number of sunsets. CURRENT MUSIC: THE SCIENTIST