

Thursday, April 24, 2008

The Little Prince

“It is only through the heart that one can see clearly. What is essential is invisible to the eyes.”

Such was the connotative quintessence of the most widely read and well-loved tale at all times. A classic written by Antoine De Saint- Exupery a year before his death, The Little Prince has not lost its magical touch even after many decades of publication.

The book is not your usual amusing children’s story. It’s all a subterfuge of a deeper meaning- almost poetic allegory and philosophy of human frailties and child’s ingenuousness.

Little wisdom sparkled by the little prince for who can indeed see clearly but an innocent little heart which was not yet tainted with the paradoxical complexities of life.

The story started with the engaging attempt of the narrator when he was a child to draw an elephant swallowed by a boa constrictor. However, his endeavor to make the grown ups see what’s in the drawing was futile. They only saw a kid’s doodle that resembled a hat for their imagination was already hemmed in.

Whatever future he had in painting was determinedly dissuaded by the adults in his life, who encouraged him instead to concentrate with more sensible things. For adults, being sagacious would mean focusing in geography, grammar, history and arithmetic.

He ended up as a pilot and gave up completely what could be a magnificent career as a painter. 

It was when he had an accident in Sahara Desert and his engine broke down that he met the little prince. Thousand miles away from any human habitation, he fell asleep on the first night on the sand.

He was dumbfounded when a soft voice woke him up asking him to draw a sheep. “When a mystery is too overpowering one dares not to disobey.” Thus he did what the little prince asked.

The little prince reawakened that child’s stance inside the heart of a man. It was with vivid details that he told his intergalactic journey in search of the secret of what’s essential in life. He was hoping it might help him to understand the flower in his planet that tormented him with its vanity and pride.

It was sort of escape that he took advantage of the migration of the wild birds. His visits in the different planets were overflowing with wisdom more than enough to enlighten any lost soul.

From the first planet inhabited by the king who considered everything as his subject, the little prince learned that authority is first and foremost based on reason.

Then the second planet inhabited by conceited individual who hears only praises; the third by a drunkard who drinks to forget that he’s ashamed of drinking; the fourth by a businessman who counts the stars and declares he owns them so that he can buy more stars or write the number in a paper and kept it lock in his drawer; the fifth planet was the smallest of all which is only enough for a lamppost and a lamplighter.

As the little prince watched the lamplighter carried out his order faithfully, he felt he had come to love him. Thus he was sorry to leave his planet blessed as it was with one thousand and four hundred and forty sunsets every day. Because when one is so sad, he loves sunset.

The sixth planet was ten times larger inhabited by a geographer who records eternal things not the ephemeral ones and that includes his flower.

The seventh planet was the earth where he found himself staring at thousand flowers which looked the same with the flower in his planet. He ended up crying on the grass thinking that he’s not a great prince after all because what he had was a common rose in danger of early disappearance and three volcanoes which came up to his knees.

It was with the fox that he learned the secret. For the fox, the little prince was just like the other thousand boys he saw but it will make a difference if the boy can tame him.

When one reads this novelette with his soul, his life would be changed forever. Nobody can enthrall you with a story so magical and so meaningful at the same time but the little prince.

The allegories were so compelling it would make your heart burst with overpowering love for the Little Prince who was “tamed” by a beautiful rose in his planet and made it different from thousand other flowers in the whole world.

He would fascinate you with the story of baobabs and the insight that seeds are invisible. They remain dormant in the depth of the earth until one of them suddenly decides to wake up. Could it be true to human emotions specially the seed of love?

Then the irony of how people rush everyday without really knowing where to go or what they are looking for. Yet, one’s happiness could actually be found in a single rose or a little water.

Crying for a lone flower he left in his planet, the narrator realized that “The land of tears is so mysterious.”

What is remarkable with the story is its interpretation of the word “goodbye”. The little prince made the narrator realized that saying it has a healing power if one’s view about things would be changed.

It is with great acuity that the little prince uttered, “The stars mean different things to different people. For some they are nothing more than twinkling lights in the sky. For travelers they are guides. For scholars they are food for thought. For the businessman in the fourth planet they are wealth. But for everyone the stars are silent. But since I shall be living on one of them and laughing on one of them, you and only you will have stars that can laugh.” And that made a lot of difference.

Indeed, it is only thru the heart that one can see clearly because the secret of the meaning of life dwells only in the heart. 


Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Nuggets of Wisdom from the Kids' World

Trisha and Benedict: Most of the times, HAPPINESS is wrapped in simplicity. It may be a cheap ice cream or enjoying cold water under the heat of the sun.

Benedict and Manuel: HAPPINESS becomes more significant if you share it with people you love.

Charles Kingsley

Albert Camus

Allan K. Chalmers

Anne Frank

George Sand

Manuel and Trisha: Life is just a game. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose.

Trisha: What is important is we learn to accept defeat gracefully.

Shayne and Benedict: And still be happy even after we fall in our journey.

Thomas Jefferson

Shayne: As we face the battle of life, those who love us will pave a way for us to make our trek easier if not completely free of pains...

...we will not be lost in the fathomless depth of the ocean of uncertainties.

Someday, we'll soar high with our dreams just like the plane touching the heaven with its wings.

as for now, let us cherish...

being little children...

...who are free of worries in life and contented with our simple HAPPINESS.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Solaris Movie Review

One of the things I enjoy nowadays is watching movies I have missed during those busy days in school. I truly appreciate the luxury of time because it gives me the chance to savor this instance without hurriedness.

One of the movies I recently watched and fell in love with is Solaris directed by Steven Soderbergh. George Clooney and Natascha McElhone starred in what was considered as the Most Romantic Sci- film of year 2002.

The movie depicts the paradoxical convolutions of beliefs about God, death, resurrection, Cosmos and depth of love.

It was a whirlwind romance for Rheya (Natascha) and Chris (George). However, differences in belief about the existence of God and other perplexing matters later on disintegrates their relationship. Chris callously left his wife who in turn committed suicide. Her suicide note includes the lines of a poem written by Dylan Thomas quoted to her by Chris the first time they met…


The mystery of their love inhabits in the line of a poem itself, “death shall have no dominion.”
When Chris was called by a friend to investigate the unusual behaviors of scientists studying the planet Solaris, he found himself battling with the same demons that haunt him since the death of his wife. Guilt and remorse threw him ill-equipped for what awaits him in the space station, Prometheus.

Could it be his insurmountable love or Rheya’s undying devotion to their relationship that resurrected his dead wife? Or maybe it is the unseen force of Solaris itself? For whatever reasons, it seems that they were about to have a second chance.

When Rheya materialized out of Chris’s memoir of her, and he asked, “How did you get here?” her answer was so simple, “What’s wrong? I love you so much”.

It was the absolute explanation itself of the mystery that surrounds her manifestation in the space station. Love is enough to conquer everything…no skies so high and no oceans so deep…death shall have no dominion.

Part of being human is to have this unquenchable thirst to seek an explanation of everything- especially about God. But when we come face to face with an answer we suddenly recoil and still we can not come to terms with what we searched for. Even though Chris came up with evidences about the mystery that surrounds Solaris which his wife suggested, “almost like God?” still he won’t simply believe.

In the first part of the movie, Chris read a book that tries to “demonstrate that the most advanced theories and victories of mathematics represent nothing more than a stumbling, one step or two-step progression from our rude, prehistoric understanding of the Universe around us.”

However, Gibarian, his friend who committed suicide in the station after having mysterious visitors said… “You ask questions at the end of your life, the sort of questions people who are content don't ask. Maybe life just can't be solved.”

The enigma of love was clearly portrayed by Rheya, death for her husband and revivification in the name of their love.

The climax scene which showed a young boy offering his hand to Chris seemed a clear portrayal of his coming to terms with himself and everything he believed into.

The element that comprises life was magnificently shown especially at the latter part of the movie then the color green which represents new life. It was the time Chris found himself back on earth and staring at his dead wife who mysteriously appeared again and uttered, “Everything is forgiven.”

Solaris exemplifies more than a Sci-film but an in depth portrayal of love and belief…truly magnificent and it captivated my heart.

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