Posts tagged "children"
An Introduction to Envy
I am seven years old at my cousin’s McDonald’s birthday party and I am Happy™.
I cheer the birthday girl as she opens and aahs her tower of unmemorable gifts.
Her Mommy materializes a promise pink suitcase. White-painted block letters parade purpose: Going to Grandma’s. My hard initiation to presents-inside-presents follows. Footed pajamas and a day outfit. A pouch with lip-gloss and her very own bath things. A favorite picture book to conjure candy-coated dreams.
I wish her smile to go the way of doomed balloons in the corner.
I wish I didn’t delight in this hive inside my heart.
The Little Prince Dedication
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
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
