The Elephant in the Boa Constrictor

It was a quiet winter evening. I had settled down by the fireplace with my grandson Eli to read him Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s classic, ‘The Little Prince.’

We were just starting, reading the first page where the six year old boy, strongly impressed by a book about the jungle, makes a drawing. To him the picture was clear: It is a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. How surprised he was when the grown-ups did not see what he had drawn – all they say was a hat! He had made a second drawing, so they would be able to understand. Only when the boy met the Little Prince did he find someone who looked at his first drawing with the same eyes, seeing it was an elephant in a boa. I had found my metaphor. xi Prologue (Mind Set by John Naisbitt)