A Hero Found
This is a story I learned about while perusing the library. It is about a true friendship and a message that despite loss, there is always hope. I have to admit The Little Prince was not a book I enjoyed as a kid. But the other day I decided to pick it up and give it another go. This is what I found on the inside cover…
“To Leon Werth
I ask children to forgive me for dedicating this book to a grown-up. I have a serious excuse: this grown-up is the best friend I have in the world. I have another excuse: this grown-up can understand everything, even books for children. I have a third excuse: he lives in France where he is hungry and cold. He needs to be comforted. If all these excuses are not enough, then I want to dedicate this book to the child whom this grown-up once was. All grown-ups were children first. (But few of them remember it.) So I correct my dedication:
To Leon Werth when He was a little boy.”
Such a beautiful dedication to a dear friend. Who was Leon Werth? He was a political writer and critic. He was also Saint-Exupery’s writing mentor beginning in 1931 being 22 his senior. Leon Werth was one of the few close friends not belonging to the aviation world. Saint-Exupery admired his work very much.
During WWII in 1943 Saint-Exupery wrote the Little Prince receiving shelter in the United State and living in an apartment in New York City knowing a limited amount of English. The book was written in French and Published in French and English. At this time Leon Werth was also in exile in a convent in Jura in the mountains near Switzerland, away from his family and friends because his father was a Jew. Both of them had authored books that were banned in France. Saint-Exupery might have felt that throughout the war and isolation his friend had lost faith. He cared and loved his friend and wanted to help him remember himself again and the wonders of life. He wanted to give a message of hope, that all is not lost; and that the little curious Prince is there in all of us, waiting to be rediscovered.
The pilots of the early 1900’s were absolutely dare evils. Crashing their planes was always a possibility. Autopilot didn’t exist. This was the emerging age of traveling by air and Saint-Exupery was happy to be a part of it even if it was new and very dangerous. There were many pilots that did not return from their flights, missing in action. If you didn’t know your plane inside and out, you could be stranded without a way to get back into the sky if and when you crashed. It was up to the pilot to do everything to stay in the air. Yet despite the challenges and risks, through shear guts they still took to the sky.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery had a talent for bravery, story telling, and writing. But he also was a passionate philosopher of life, in touch with the important things of the heart. He was able to put into words what others could not. What it was like in the emerging age of flight, and the courage it took to fly, by day and by night, crashing, repairing, refueling.
Saint-Exupery did crashed his plane a few times. I’m sure it was a miracle he survived. Especially since one of them was in the hot Libyan Desert. But at the same time I’m sure having near deaths over and over again gave him perspective many may not understand. Saint-Exupery flew planes for WWI and then for a postal company to fly airmail. Then when WWII rolled around he enrolled and flew dangerous missions until he went into exile and tried to get the U.S. to join in the fight in D.C.
Past the age of enrollment, Saint-Exupery was still determined to fly and help with the war effort despite all his injuries from plane crashes that left him crippled in pain. He wanted to do something more to help those suffering. He had his friend in mind when he said “I cannot bear to be far from those who are hungry…I am leaving in order to suffer and thereby be united with those who are dear to me.” He didn’t have to go to war. He had done his part. Yet he felt he could not stand by. He joined the Free French Air Force and was involved in a spy mission that would take him to the sky for one last time July 1944.
Leon Werth learned of his friends death one month later, but never learned of the Little Prince until 4 months later when a copy was sent to him by Saint-Exupery’s publisher as a gift. Because of the war, this was possibly the soonest the book could be sent.
I imagine his friend may not only have been hungry and cold in the literal sense, but in his soul he may have lost his way and a loving friend wanted to be a reminderer of all the good and magical things life has to offer if only we can see through the eyes of a child. That is truly what this book is about. The unseen things of this life that can only be appreciated with the heart. I hope his friend felt the love that he had as he wrote it. People come in and out of our lives. They touch and tame our hearts and then leave an indelible impression in which we will never be the same. We are better for having known them. Stars will always be a way to think of them and love them even if they are far away. After his death, Leon Werth said “Peace without Tonio (Saint-Exupery) isn’t entirely peace.”
His friend touched his heart and was never the same again.
The Little Prince is like a bookend to his life. It is simple. One everyone could receive. Written in 220 languages. This is what his section looks like at the library at the university of Utah. This book does not only touch the heart of the one it was meant for, but many people since.
As a reread this book I remembered why I didn’t like it as a child. I was all about happy endings and this just didn’t end how I thought it should. How could someone as charming and dear die from a snake bite? It was robbery! A truly wonderful tale ruined. And yet this also had a purpose. Death was very familiar to Saint-Exupery. His dad died when he was four. His sister died when he was 26. He had served in both WWI and WWII. Death was common. How does a child understand death? Saint-Exupery was teaching – once someone has tamed you and you love them, and then they depart – maybe they have not completely gone away. Maybe they are among the stars twinkling down. And you can think of them on their little planet and wonder what they are doing. They are still a presence in your life but just in a different form. They will always be a part of you shining down encouragement and simple wisdom with love and care. All those who touch our lives will forever have a place in our hearts never to be forgotten and looked on with fondness and love.
This is what he said of some of his flying buddies that he flew with. “Nothing, in truth, can ever replace a lost companion. Old comrades cannot be manufactured. There is nothing that can equal the treasure of so many shared memories, so many bad times endured together, so many quarrels, reconciliations, heartfelt impulses. Friendships like that cannot be reconstructed. If you plant an oak, you will hope in vain to sit soon under its shade.For such is life. We grow rich as we plant through the early years, but then come the years when time undoes our work and cuts down our trees. One by one our comrades deprive us of their shade, and within our mourning we always feel now the secret grief of growing old.If I search among my memories for those whose taste is lasting, if I write the balance sheet of the moments that truly counted, I surely find those that no fortune could have bought me. You cannot buy the friendship of a companion bound to you forever by ordeals endured together.”―
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So many have touched my life and I will be forever grateful to them. They have given me hope and courage when I could not see. I love the song we are singing in choir. I think it goes along beautifully with the theme of stars. The words are to a poem dedicated to a child gone too soon. The music is so beautiful – it touches my heart every time we practice. You can listen to it
.
This song is based on a poem by Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)
There will be rest, and sure stars shining
Over the roof-tops crowned with snow,
A reign of rest, serene forgetting,
The music of stillness holy and low.
I will make this world of my devising
Out of a dream in my lonely mind.
I shall find the crystal of peace, -above me
Stars I shall find.
Thank goodness Saint-Exupery left this lovely inspiration to help us all remember to notice the good and simple wonders life can bring and to also remember who we are and to love freely and deeply no matter the cost.
This picture is on the cover of his book titled Southern Mail. This is how I see Saint-Exupery now, flying among the stars.
