Skip to main content

The Giving Tree

I can remember the first time I heard of the book "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein. 

My college roommate told me about it.  "I love that book," she told me. "I can't believe you've never read it!"

A lot of people have recommended books to me over the years, and there are very few that I specifically remember.  In fact, as I'm sitting here trying to remember, I can think of maybe four books out of hundreds that were recommended to me where I still remember who told me about it and what I thought of it.  I think I still remember this because 1) it was a children's book and those weren't usually recommended in college - I  was just surprised by that and 2) I read it and I hated it.  And not just hated it a little.  I thought it was one of the most depressing stories I'd ever read.  I love a book that makes you feel strong emotion, even makes you cry, but this one was just depressing.

If you haven't read it, it's about a boy and a tree.  As a child, the boy loves to play in the tree's branches, eat her fruit, and swing on her swing.  And this makes the tree happy.  As he gets older, he needs money and the tree tells him to take all her fruit and sell it so the boy does.  And this makes the tree happy.  Then the boy wants to go away and the tree tells him to take all of her branches and make a boat.  The boy does and the tree is happy about that too.  Then the boy gets married and needs a house to live in and the tree tells the boy to cut her down and build a house from her wood.  The boy does and the tree is happy - sort of.  Because now the tree is just a stump and the boy is gone.

Then the boy comes back but he is old now and he just wants a place to rest.  A stump is a good place to rest.  So the tree/stump tells the boy/old man rest to rest on her.  And the tree/stump is happy again.

And I always thought that was an awful ending because the tree is just a stump at the end.  She's all used up and has nothing left to give anyone else.  How sad.  How depressing.

Then on Facebook, someone made a post about what children's books should really have been titled.  And the Giving Tree was called:


Oh.  OH.  

I get it now!  The tree is a metaphor for a mother!  She gives everything she has to make her child's life better and even if it takes everything she's got, she really is happy when they are happy.

I love this book.

I told Emily, "I'm going to get each one of you a copy of this book!"

Emily just looked at me and said, "We don't need a copy of that book.  We already know we're going to use you up and bleed you dry.  What's for dinner?"


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mammogram

I'm having my annual mammogram today. I always hear about how painful they are, but honestly, I've never thought they are that bad. Not the most comfortable, but not painful either. Every time I have a mammogram, I'm reminded of this story. It won the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition and I still get a kick out of it every time I read it. So I'm posting it here today for your reading pleasure: Erma Bombeck Writing Competition 1st place in Humor Category Winner Leigh Anne Jasheway of Eugene, Oregon "The First Time's Always the Worst" The first mammogram is the worst. Especially when the machine catches on fire. That's what happened to me. The technician, Gail, positioned me exactly as she wanted me (think a really complicated game of Twister - right hand on the blue, left shoulder on the yellow, right breast as far away as humanly possible from the rest of your body). Then she clamped the machine down so tight, I think my breast actually turned inside o...
2 comments
Read more

Sumida Watercress Farm

This week, we went on a field trip to Sumida Watercress Farm in Aiea. Ben was not happy about going with us. He grumbled the entire way there about me waking him up early to "watch things grow". Sumida Watercress Farm grows 75% of all the watercress produced in Hawaii. It has been run by the Sumida Family for three generations. One of the most interesting things about this farm is that the Pearlridge Mall was built around it because the Sumidas did not want to sell the land. It's very cool to look at this little farm and then see the city buildings all around it. One wall has the tails of marlins they have caught, each of which weighed over 600 pounds! One was even from an 800 pound fish! Mr. Sumida brought out a giant bowl of crawfish which live in the water. He showed the kids how to pick one up and where to hold it so it couldn't pinch them. Katie picked one up and it promptly twisted itself into a backflip and pinched her finger. We got to walk out through ...
1 comment
Read more

Japanese Fishing Shrine

Here's an interesting little spot we stopped to see. I'd passed this many times before and had never stopped to see what it was. Since GG and Sherry were here, we decided to check it out. There is a shrine of some sort with a statue and a carved rock. There was no information on sight as to what it is that I could find. There were flowers, food and incense left around the base of the shrine. There was a ceramic statue and a rock with a figure carved into it. None of the food was old or rotting (although plenty of it had clearly been pecked by birds) and the flowers were all fresh which made me think it must be cleaned and cared for on a regular basis. After we got home, I did some research and found this article about it from the Hawaii Star Bulletin, our local newspaper (I have edited out some bits, but otherwise the article is unchanged): "Maintenance" of the monument has been assumed by a group of Vietnamese Buddhists - Shingon Shu Hawaii, the Buddhist temple th...
2 comments
Read more