Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Little Prince

I for one agree with the rest of you that I didn't like this book so much. I'm so glad it was followed by one that I enjoyed immensely. This time though, I have an excellent excuse for not having much to write: I finished the book while recovering from the dilaudid PCA that had made me hallucinate a little bit. I never want to be on dilaudid again. Anyway, here's a few quotes I did like.

"Are there hunters on that planet?"
"No."
"Ah, that is interesting! Are there chickens?"
"No."
"Nothing is perfect," sighed the fox.

I thought it was ironic with the fox's philosphy on being tamed and having friends, that he should still wish for the easy life. Just like in the train chapter about the humans who didn't know what they wanted, we perphaps all want the easy life with all chickens and no hunters, but as stated here: Nothing is perfect. All of us have our trials and our rewards.

This was a merchant who sold pills that had been invented to quench thirst. You need only swallow one pill a week, and you would feel no need of anything to drink.
"Why are you selling those?" asked the little prince.
"Because they save a tremendous amount of time," said the merchant. "Computations have been made by the experts. With these pills, you save fifty-three minutes in every week."
"And what do I do with those fifty-three minutes?"
"Anything you like . . ."
"As for me," said the little prince to himself, "if I had fifty-three minutes spend as I liked, I should walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water."

This was brilliantly put, I thought. There's so much in our world that we can choose to do or buy that replaces the original concept or activity that is so much nicer and/or better for us. For instance, playing videogames of soccer or other sport instead of going outside and actually playing the sport. Or all the premade meals and stuff. I love being able to put a homecooked meal in front of my family with homemade bread. It's so satisfying to be able to take care of some of their basic needs and know that it's wholesome and frankly tastes better than most stuff you buy at the store anyway (at least on the level of our budget.) It's kind of like the idea of "quality time" vs. "quantity time" with your children too.

Well, I thought I had more to say, but that was all I had marked. Again, I'm blaming it all on the dilaudid. Yucky stuff.

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