A reader writes:
My mother gave me The Giving Tree during my sophomore year of college. I knew and loved the book but was slightly embarrassed to receive it from her at age 20. I rarely called home at that time. I even stayed with my girlfriend's family when she and I returned home for the holidays. My father had left when I was four. When Mom remarried she quickly became a diplomat in a makeshift family. She graduated college with a 4.0 GPA when I was a teen, but never missed a basketball game, band concert or school play. Only now – eight years later and still a zombie on the phone – do I realize the significance of her buying me The Giving Tree. You've put a lump in my throat.
Another writes:
I am a businessman, the father of a 13-, 11- and 9-year-old, and I cannot read The Giving Tree without choking up. I think there are several reasons:
The child’s dreams end in disappointment, and he becomes a lonely, failed old man. I think it’s a rare person who doesn’t see a little of himself there. I also fear for my children, so fresh and young, with everything in front of them. I would do anything to protect them from ending up like this child.
The tree loves the child unconditionally, sacrifices everything for him and always sees him as the child he was. This is awe-inspiring. I’m not religious, but if I believed God loved me, this is how I would imagine it. I believe the man knows he doesn’t deserve it, which makes it even sadder.
In the end, the message to me is that our time is brief, much of what we do isn’t very meaningful, and we fall short and disappoint ourselves, but that we can still be graced by an overwhelming love that we haven’t earned. This gets me every time.
(Photo: Graffiti spotted in Brooklyn)
The Dish 