THAT LITTLE KID STILL LIVES IN ME

“All grown-ups were once children, but few remember it.”

[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]

I was born on October 31, 1944. So, happy birthday to me!

This week, I re-read the book The Little Prince, by the French author and aviator, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

It was written in 1943, a year before the author disappeared while on a reconnaissance mission in the south of France; and obviously, a year before I was born.

I hadn’t read the book since college, where I read it for a French literature class in the original language.

It didn’t have much of an impact on me then.

Perhaps because it was assigned reading, or that I struggled with having to translate the language, or because I was too young to appreciate the book’s message.

For those who haven’t read it, and in order to save valuable time, here is a link to the plot summary and analysis of the book. You may want to give that a quick read.

In brief, it is a children’s book written for adults.

I mention it because my wife and I were at dinner with a friend recently. Both he and I celebrate birthdays in October so, naturally, the subject of aging came up in the conversation – a lot!

He mentioned the book and I had to ashamedly admit that it had been a while since I read it. Our friend had also read it in French, but he is fluent, so his recollection of it is much better than mine.

I’ve become more and more reflective and nostalgic with each passing year.

I marvel that I have lived this long.

I give thanks to God for the gift of longevity, as well as relatively good health.

I’m convinced that I have been afforded all these years because God feels I have more to contribute. I’m still on that journey of discovering what additional plans God has for me.

And as I look back on my life, I also am amazed at the challenges I’ve managed to suppress and overcome.

It calls to mind a verse from Psalm 90, the psalm that I read each year on my birthday:

The span of our life is seventy years,
perhaps in strength even eighty;
yet the sum of them is but labor and sorrow,
for they pass away quickly and we are gone.
[Psalm 90:10]

The significant events that have shaped my life are too many to catalog here, but I thank God for all of them, both the good and the not so good.

As I wondered about the focus of this annual birthday reflection, I thought about my childhood and some of those pleasant memories that I still hold to this day.

I dug through my family photos and came up with the three gems that follow:

1. One of my early childhood photos sometime before my first birthday.
2. Visiting Santa Claus along with my sisters at Christmas of 1953.
3. My fifth-grade class at Sewickley Elementary School. I’m in the top row of the photo, right next to the teacher, Mrs. McDonald.

Believe it or not, there are friends from elementary school that I’m still in touch with even in our old age, yet whom I still see through little kid’s eyes.

That brings me back to Le Petit Prince.

The quote at the top of today’s post is timely.

I was forced to remember some of my childhood memories two weeks ago when my high school (Clairton High School) honored me by inducting me into their hall of fame.

We had ended up living in Clairton, quite a contrast from Sewickley, due to a series of unfortunate events.

But those disappointments turned out to become a blessing for me. I gained an education that gave me a solid foundation for adulthood.

At eighty-two years old, I am at an age where the question that looms large is, how much longer do I have to live on this earth?

The answer to that question is not up to us.

Again, the psalmist reminds us that our times are God’s hands. (Psalm 31:15)

But I am grateful that each day when I awake, I can give God thanks for another day of life, and an abundance of treasured memories.

Satisfy us by your loving-kindness in the morning;
so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.
[Psalm 90:14]

We pray:
Watch over your children, O Lord, as their days increase; bless and guide them wherever they may be. Strengthen then when they stand; comfort them when discouraged or sorrowful; raise them up if they fall; and in their hearts may your peace which passes understanding abide all the days of their lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Book of Common Prayer, edited, p. 830)