Summary

A 40-year-old man, nicknamed "Little Prince," reflects on his life's journey, the impact of COVID-19 on his dreams, and the enduring wisdom he finds in re-reading "The Little Prince."

Abstract

The narrative follows a man who, since childhood, has been associated with the character of the Little Prince. Now at the age of 40, he contemplates the myriad experiences of his life, including the pain of war and the struggle for survival. Faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, his plans to celebrate his milestone birthday in Cuba are thwarted, leading him to a introspective journey facilitated by a revisit to Saint-Exupéry's classic tale. Through the book, he rediscovers the importance of simple pleasures and the invisible essence of happiness, finding solace and perspective within the pages of a story that has accompanied him since his youth.

Opinions

The author views life as a series of contradictory moments, akin to the unpredictable nature of Carmina Burana.
He expresses a sense of loss and disappointment due to the pandemic's impact on his travel dreams, emphasizing the unseen toll of ruined plans.
The author finds comfort in literature, particularly in the book "The Little Prince," which he believes offers timeless wisdom and a reminder to appreciate life's simple joys.
He adopts a philosophical stance, suggesting that true satisfaction comes from within and that inner journeys are as significant as physical ones.
The author identifies with the Little Prince's quote, "I am who I am and I have the need to be," as a personal mantra that has stayed with him throughout his life.
He sees his 40th birthday not as an end to youth but as a moment of acceptance and contentment, recognizing that the spirit of the Little Prince remains within him.

Crazy Days of a 40-year-old Little Prince in Cuba

A Tale of an Exotic Journey in Covid Times

“ You need to read this book and summarize it for your fellow students, okay, Subhi?” said the teacher and she handed the Little Prince book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry to me. I was only seven.

As I read it I was completely absorbed by the story of the little prince: A young boy who lives in a small asteroid named B 612, travels through the universe and visits various planets, including Earth, and explores themes of love, happiness, loneliness, friendship, and human nature.

As I presented the story, I spoke as if I was the Little Prince himself. The other kids were laughing hard, especially when I said “I am who I am and I have the need to be.” The nickname Little Prince stuck with me like a shadow or even closer.

As life separated me from my fellow students in my elementary school, my beautiful nickname disappeared into thin air, except when I accidentally encountered one of them on the street.

The little prince (me) has been through a lot of contradictory moments of happiness and pain (like everyone else) and on top of that has also witnessed a savage war and a wild death everywhere, struggled to survive, and learned how to navigate a new world. Life was just like Carmina Burana.

Before I noticed, my ship was near the harbor of 40. It’s such a milestone in life, isn’t it?

I planned to visit a place that was always on my list: Cuba. A limitless dream was to walk along the soulful Malecón de Havana, enjoy a classic car tour, and find the traces of Ernest Hemingway, one of my favorite writers who lived near Havana for 20 years, but out of the blues, covid appeared like a hungry shark in the ocean of our lives.

A number of websites track the cases and confirmed deaths caused by covid, but no one tracks the number of ruined dreams and plans because of it. Rather than celebrating my 40th birthday in an exotic tropical place far from everything (including myself) as in the famous Cuban song “ my verse is a wounded deer seeking refuge” I had a normal day or at least that’s what I thought at the start.

On his birthday, the wounded deer (me) was forced to stay in the Netherlands and try to distract himself from his wrath and disappointment by walking.

If you are a reader then your steps will take you subconsciously to the library and voila…..I was there and from nowhere a version of Little Prince in English was waiting for me with a smile of satisfaction on the face of the prince on the cover.

In an apartment in a small Dutch city amid the global pandemic, a 40-year-old (me) read the Little Prince again with the eyes of a grown-up in some moments and with the eyes of a child in the majority of them.

This book took me on a journey to the most ambiguous destination of all: A journey within me.“What matters most are the simple pleasures so abundant that we can all enjoy them…Happiness doesn’t lie in the objects we gather around us. To find it, all we need to do is open our eyes.” Those words reminded me of a beautiful verse in a Spanish song “ the sadness is the slow death of small things”

“No one is ever satisfied where he is.” I read this phrase in the book but on that evening and in the harbor of 40 I felt privileged and satisfied that life reminded me of a secret that it had spilled before “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” In addition to the secret, I received a free excursion to deep diving, not in Cuba or tropical islands, but inside myself, where all journeys begin and end.

The Little Prince (me) became 40 all of a sudden, which means he is not very little, but he is and will always be in his heart… A Little Prince

“I am who I am and I have the need to be.”

All sayings in this article are by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Subhi Najar is an Alchemist of words, Little Prince, Public Speaker, storyteller, content Creator, and war survivor.

Kindly follow me on Medium & Twitter

If you like my work, please subscribe here! Also, medium permits you to read 3 articles per month for free. If you wish to have unlimited access to my articles and thousands of great articles, don’t hesitate to get a membership for 5$ per month by clicking my referral link: https://medium.com/@subhinajar/membership