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Im reading a book, it's more of a compostion of influential stories and this one stuck out to me so Im gonna share...
Many americans are familiar with "The Little Prince",a wonderful book by Antoine se Sant-Exupery. This is a whimsical and fabulous book and works as a children's story as well and a thought-proviking adult fable. Far fewer are aware of Saint-Exupery's other wiritings, novels and short stories.
Saint-Exupery was a fighter piolet who fought against the Nazis and was killed in action. Before world war 2, he fought the Spanish civil war against the fascits. He wrote a fascinating story based on the experience entitles "The Smile". It isnt clear whether or not he meant it to be a bioigropgy or fiction. I choose to believe it to be the former.
He said that he was captured by the enemy and thrown into a jail cell. He was sure that from the contemruous looks and rought treatment he recieved from his jailers he would be executed the next day. From here, I'll tell you the story as I remember it in my own words.
"I was sure that I was to be killed. I became terribly nervous and distraught. I fumbled in my pockets to see if there were any cigarettes which had escaped their search. I found one and because of my shaking hands, I could barely get it to my lips. But I had no matches, they had talken thouse.
"I looked threw the bars at my jailer. He did not make eye contact with me. After all, one does not make eye contact with a thing, a corpse. I called out to him 'have you got a light please?' He looked at me, shrugged and came over to light my cigarette.
"As he came close and lit the match, his eyes inadvertenly locked with mine. At that moment, I smiled. I dont know why I did that. Perhaps it was nervousness, perhaps it was because, when you get very close, one to another, it is very hard not to smile. In any case I smiled. In that instant, it was as though a spark jumped across the gap between our two hearts, our two human souls. I know he didnt want to, but my smile leaped through the bars and generated a smile on his lips, too. He lit my cigarette but stayed near, looking at me directly in the eyes continuing to smile.
"I kept smiling at him, now aware of him as a person and not just a jailer. And his looking at me seemed to have new dimension, too. Do you have kids?' he asked.
"Yes, here, I took out my wallet and nervously fumbled for the pictures of my family. He, too, took out the pictures of his aswell and began to talk about his planes and hopes for them. My eyes filled with tears. I said that I feared that I'd never see my family again, never have the chance to see them grow up". Tears came to his eyes, too.
"Suddenly, without another word, he unlocked my cell and silenly led me out. Out of the jail, quietly and by back routes, out of the town. There, at the edge of town, he released me. And without another word, he turned back toward the town.
My life was saved by a smile."
Yes, the smile-the unaffected, unplanned, natural connection between people. I tell this story in my work because I'd like to consider the underneath all the layers we construct to protect ourselves, our dignity, our titles, our degrees, our status and our need to be seen in certain ways- underneath all that, remains the authentic, essential self. Im not afraid to call it the soul. I really belive that if that part of you and the part of me could recognize each other, we wouldn't be enemies. We couldn't hace hate or envy or fear. I sadly conclude that all those other layers, which we so carefully construct through out lives, distance and insulate us from truly contacting others. Saint-Exupery's story speaks of that magic moment when two souls recognize each other.
I've had just a few moments like that. Falling in love is one example. And looking at a baby. Why do we smile when we see a baby? Perhaps it's because we see someone without all the defensive layers, someone whose smile for us we know to be fully genuine and without guile. And that baby-soul inside us smiles wistfully in recognition.
Many americans are familiar with "The Little Prince",a wonderful book by Antoine se Sant-Exupery. This is a whimsical and fabulous book and works as a children's story as well and a thought-proviking adult fable. Far fewer are aware of Saint-Exupery's other wiritings, novels and short stories.
Saint-Exupery was a fighter piolet who fought against the Nazis and was killed in action. Before world war 2, he fought the Spanish civil war against the fascits. He wrote a fascinating story based on the experience entitles "The Smile". It isnt clear whether or not he meant it to be a bioigropgy or fiction. I choose to believe it to be the former.
He said that he was captured by the enemy and thrown into a jail cell. He was sure that from the contemruous looks and rought treatment he recieved from his jailers he would be executed the next day. From here, I'll tell you the story as I remember it in my own words.
"I was sure that I was to be killed. I became terribly nervous and distraught. I fumbled in my pockets to see if there were any cigarettes which had escaped their search. I found one and because of my shaking hands, I could barely get it to my lips. But I had no matches, they had talken thouse.
"I looked threw the bars at my jailer. He did not make eye contact with me. After all, one does not make eye contact with a thing, a corpse. I called out to him 'have you got a light please?' He looked at me, shrugged and came over to light my cigarette.
"As he came close and lit the match, his eyes inadvertenly locked with mine. At that moment, I smiled. I dont know why I did that. Perhaps it was nervousness, perhaps it was because, when you get very close, one to another, it is very hard not to smile. In any case I smiled. In that instant, it was as though a spark jumped across the gap between our two hearts, our two human souls. I know he didnt want to, but my smile leaped through the bars and generated a smile on his lips, too. He lit my cigarette but stayed near, looking at me directly in the eyes continuing to smile.
"I kept smiling at him, now aware of him as a person and not just a jailer. And his looking at me seemed to have new dimension, too. Do you have kids?' he asked.
"Yes, here, I took out my wallet and nervously fumbled for the pictures of my family. He, too, took out the pictures of his aswell and began to talk about his planes and hopes for them. My eyes filled with tears. I said that I feared that I'd never see my family again, never have the chance to see them grow up". Tears came to his eyes, too.
"Suddenly, without another word, he unlocked my cell and silenly led me out. Out of the jail, quietly and by back routes, out of the town. There, at the edge of town, he released me. And without another word, he turned back toward the town.
My life was saved by a smile."
Yes, the smile-the unaffected, unplanned, natural connection between people. I tell this story in my work because I'd like to consider the underneath all the layers we construct to protect ourselves, our dignity, our titles, our degrees, our status and our need to be seen in certain ways- underneath all that, remains the authentic, essential self. Im not afraid to call it the soul. I really belive that if that part of you and the part of me could recognize each other, we wouldn't be enemies. We couldn't hace hate or envy or fear. I sadly conclude that all those other layers, which we so carefully construct through out lives, distance and insulate us from truly contacting others. Saint-Exupery's story speaks of that magic moment when two souls recognize each other.
I've had just a few moments like that. Falling in love is one example. And looking at a baby. Why do we smile when we see a baby? Perhaps it's because we see someone without all the defensive layers, someone whose smile for us we know to be fully genuine and without guile. And that baby-soul inside us smiles wistfully in recognition.