70 years ago the French aristocrat, writer, poet, and pioneering aviator Antoine de Exupery took off in a Lockheed Lightning P38 from a French air base in Corsica and disappeared into the clouds to be never seen again. For me as a child it was always clear that he simply took off to join the little prince on his little planet - as for sure he must have returned there, since here on earth nobody really understood him.Alas Wikipedia has the rest of the story:
>In September 1998, Jean-Claude Bianco, a fisherman, found east of Riou Island, south of Marseille, a silver identity bracelet (gourmette) bearing the names of Saint-Exupéry and of his wife and his American publisher hooked to a piece of fabric, presumably from his flight suit. The recovery of his bracelet was an emotionally-laden event in France, where Saint-Exupéry had by then assumed the
mantle of a national icon, and some disputed its authenticity as it was found far from his intended flight path, implying that the aircraft may not have been shot down.
In May 2000 a diver, found the partial remains of a Lockheed P-38 Lightning spread over thousands of square metres of the seabed off the coast of Marseille, near to where the bracelet was previously found. The discovery galvanized the country, which for decades had conducted searches for his aircraft and speculated on Saint-Exupéry's fate.<
Wherever his inventor went, the little prince has always stayed with me and I hope you have been introduced to him as well. If not: >The Little Prince is a poetic tale, with watercolour illustrations by the author, in which a pilot stranded in the desert (see!!) meets a young prince fallen to Earth from a tiny asteroid. The story is philosophical and includes social criticism, remarking on the strangeness of the adult world.
Though ostensibly styled as a children's book The Little Prince makes several profound and idealistic observations about life and human nature. My favorite part is still of the fox meeting the young prince during his travels on Earth. The story's essence is contained in the lines uttered by the fox to the little prince: "One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye."
Other key thematic messages are articulated by the fox, such as: "You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed." and "It is the time you have lost for your rose that makes your rose so
important." The fox's messages are arguably the book's most famous
quotations because they deal with human relationships.<And in me as a child they woke the need of keeping in touch with anybody I ever met and cared for - the fox told me so...
I miss you little prince. Can I visit?
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