Letting go of people is hard for me. I think it is hard, not so much in death as it is hard when I know they are out there but I can never reach out to them or know what is happening on their planet. I think the movie violated this first rule of letting go. The colour of the wheat fields was important to me. The anxiety and sadness of not knowing what happened to the little prince was important to me. Not being able to make second contact was important to me. Not knowing the end of his journey and having to live with the mystery of the sheep's muzzle missing its strap.. it gave me a way to solve a puzzle in my head. It gave me a solution to my problem. The movie took that away from me all over again.
" 'And when you're consoled (everyone eventually is consoled), you'll be glad you've known me. You'll always be my friend. You'll feel like laughing with me. And you'll open your window sometimes just for the fun of it.. And your friends will be amazed to see you laughing while you're looking up at the sky. Then you'll tell them, "Yes, it's the stars; they always make me laugh!" And they'll think you're crazy. It'll be a nasty trick I played on you..' "
They don't need to understand my craziness. I can laugh and never solve my laughter for their understanding. I can be on the wrong end of this particular nasty trick.. which will actually be just the right end for me.
I imagine the movie was maybe made by a happier person. Someone who was not eternally touched by the sadness of the state of limbo someone leaves you in when you have been tamed by them. The joy of sorrow. The consolation in sadness within sadness itself. The art of laughing with yourself just by memory.
The strength of a bond made by the sound of a pulley or the pouring of water..
Or the colour of the wheat fields..
Or the shape of a mountain..
Or the wrinkle of an eye..
Or the smell of cinnamon in tea..
I found my consolation in the smell of cinnamon in my tea after reading this book. The movie was too happy and giggly. Life has not been so giggly. The book was deeper and happily sad. Being ok with sadness is essential. Children can be sad too. The sadness of a child is much greater than that of an adult. Adults have the distraction of a bigger plan. Children have now. It is one moment for the rest of your life. But when a child is consoled, s/he is consoled completely. It is us adults who need more reason and constant reminder. This book is my constant reminder into consolation. The constant reminder to sometimes not look for further consolation. The reminder to be consoled for the sake of the colour of the wheat fields. For the sake of that cinnamon in my tea.
