There is a book. It is a very special book. It is so special that if you haven't read it, I suggest you read it. It is a book written by a man who is unlike most grown-ups. One day, he meets a boy in a very peculiar manner. The man, who is unlike most grown-ups, hears the boy tell stories about his travels through the universe. That boy was The Little Prince, and that very special book is the man's story.

But what you are about to read is not the man's story. This story is about someone else entirely, someone who knew the man and the boy. But before I tell you this story, I want to ask you a question:

If you were a tree, what stories would you tell?

Well, this story is about a tree, and he has a very unusual story. Actually, let's back up a bit. Before there was a tree, there was a seed...

His name was Douglas Fir, and although he couldn't remember how exactly he got onto Asteroid B-612, there is one thing that he did know: He must not grow. You see, there were many seeds that had found their way into the soil of Asteroid B-612, but each time a seed decided to wake up and grow - mostly baobabs, the haughty and impatient bunch - they would be uprooted, and plucked from the soil. You see, were a baobab, or any other seed that grew into something big, to grow on the little asteroid, it would overtake it, and break it apart.

Now seeds were not the only thing that lived on Asteroid B-612; it was also the home of a boy. This boy, as we later find out, was the little prince. But this story is not about the little prince, it is about Douglas. Douglas the seed, as is the case right now.

If this story was only to take place on Asteroid B-612, it would be a rather boring one. Douglas would never grow (for if he did he would be pulled out of the ground by the little prince), and if Douglas never grew, then this story would only be about who got plucked out of the soil on Asteroid B-612, and when. As I said, this would be very boring. But this story does not only take place on Asteroid B-612. This story will travel through the universe. Thus, this story is not very boring.

If you haven't realized it yet, the universe is a very big place, and it is full of interesting people - as Douglas will soon find out - who spend their lives giving their attention to different things. The things that people give attention to is very important, because it is what people give their attention to that determines what kind of lives they will have.

Matters such as these never crossed the mind of Douglas the seed. Not yet anyways. He didn't realize all the things that he would see on his adventure, and the people he would meet. He didn't know that he was soon about to meet a rose, a geographer, a lamplighter, and a pilot. He didn't yet understand all the thoughts that he would have about the universe and the people in it. To him, such thoughts had not yet sprouted. But all that was about to change one day when something was allowed to grow on Asteroid B-612. It was not a baobab, for if it was it would have been plucked out -instead it was something that would change the life of Douglas forever.

What it was, as Douglas and the little prince were soon to find out, was a rose.

The lazy man who didn't pull up baobabs in time

Antoine De Saint-Exupery

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