If I have told you these details about the asteroid, and made a note of its number for you, it is on account of the grown-ups and their ways. When you tell them that you have made a new friend, they never ask you any questions about essential matters. They never say to you, “What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies?” Instead, they demand: “How old is he? How many brothers has he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?” Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him.

If you were to say to the grown-ups: “I saw a beautiful house made of rosy brick, with geraniums in the windows and doves on the roof,” they would not be able to get any idea of that house at all. You would have to say to them: “I saw a house that cost $20,000.” Then they would exclaim: “Oh, what a pretty house that is.”

From “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Most of us have read this lovely tale more than once—the beauty of the plot, the wealth of teachings. In this snippet, Antoine de Saint Exupéry shows us the profound difference between the thinking of a grown-up and that of a child. Our ability to distinguish the essential characteristics of a person decreases as we age. It is easy for children to know others. This quality is the reason why the make friends so quickly. My three-year-old and six-year-old grandsons came to Spain. They don’t speak Spanish, but as soon as their parents let them loose in the middle of a plaza, they engaged in conversation with the other children and played soccer with them. On one occasion, I walked into the bedroom of my youngest grandson and said,

“Tonight, I am sleeping in your bed.”

He stared at me, studied my expression, and said,

“No, you are not. You are joking. You have your home and your bed. Go and sleep there.”

Those little guys have their own way of thinking.