The Seven Planets (inspired by The Little Prince)

I’ve just read the book "The Little Prince" written by Antoine De Saint-Exupery. It’s a 90-page book. If you can see the cover and the illustrations inside the book, it may look like for children. That the story of this book is just like any other stereotype-once-upon-a-time storybook. But it is NOT. If you can just really understand the book, it will tell you a deeper moral. And just like what I did, it will bring you closer to the innocent little prince.

In the story, the little prince traveled from one planet to the other. With each planet, he would meet someone. Someone who tells his profession and his story to the little prince. And someone, who’s on my own perception, represents a human characteristic. Read the following, who knows, you might see yourself in one of those people.^^

Note: These planets are very small. You can almost take a walk around it by 12 small steps! Of course it is round, and you can only put a single chair on top of it for the most!

Planet No. 1- The King
You might wonder, what is the king is for if there’s no people. Well, that doesn’t matter for this King. Coz he thinks he owns the universe, he owns everything his eyes can reach. And he never ever stands from his throne! You have nowhere to sit because the whole planet is covered by the king’s magnificent ermine robe! In our world, he is the type of person who thinks he can have anything with doing nothing.

One of the few phrases that stucked me:

"It is more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom." - KING

Planet No. 2 - Conceited Man
The one who salute whoever pass by his planet by taking his hat off his head. He is someone who admires himself above anybody else. Who thinks that he is superior than anyone. But actually, he is a person with no substance. Para xang isang malaking siopao na puro hangin lang ang laman.

Planet No. 3 - Tippler
He drinks so he can forget that he is ashamed, ashamed of drinking! In reality, he is someone who thinks that life’s problem can be erased by a glass of alcohol. But it is not. It may get out of your mind some time. But it will inevitably come back.

Planet No. 4 - The Business Man
Counting stars. Who fool will do this? Will you? He did. Thinking that the stars are his property because no one ever thinks to own the stars. They are the people who are lost. Who didn’t know the real meaning of living or yet didn’t know what they are born for. They are so busy chasing things. Things that we don’t really need. They make themselves stressed by making money, and planning how to grow their equity. They make their lives complicated, where in fact they can choose a simple yet more meaningful life.

Planet No. 5 - Lamplighter
He turns on the light when the sun sets and turns off when the sun shines. And because as time runs by, the rotation of the planet becomes faster until the time came that he has no time even just to sit nor sleep. In reality, he is the one who do favor for the others without thinking of his own condition.

Planet No. 6 - The Geographer
Geographers are those people who know best in terms of landforms and locations. But this geographer knows nothing. Because he believes that the job of a geographer is to tally things, while it is the job of the traveler to travel from place to place and report to the geographer. As I can see him, I can tell that he is the type of person who made a lot of excuses just to save him from being the one to blame.

Planet No. 7 - The Planet Earth
And the last planet was the Earth. Where he met the fox, who taught him of a great lesson. The lesson of becoming special to someone. Of becoming unique , of becoming the only one above anybody. TAME - letting someone be a part of your life.

"To me you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need on me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. And to you, I shall be unique in all the world…" -FOX

He also met the roses. He has his rose, in his planet. before, he thinks that his rose is the only rose in the universe. and when he saw the hundred thousan other roses on Earth he became sad. Sad because his rose is no longer unique. But as the fox taught him. He then understands that his rose is the only one.

"You are not like my rose. As yet you are nothing. 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. You are beautiful but you are empty. One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you - the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all hundreds of you other roses. Because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass of globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose." -LITTLE PRINCE

I may be, at times, like the Tippler, who drinks to forget and at times like the geographer. This things happen simply because I'am Human. but this won't matter, as long as I know when and where to act as a Kid and an Adult. Life is a matter of choices, it's just up to you whether to choose right or left.


--The Little Prince