Tuesday, March 21, 2017

The Giving Tree

I am a grown-up crybaby.

I cry at weddings.  I cry through movies.  Some children's books choked me up so much that I couldn't even read them to my then-young son.

Strange how, recently, the memory of gardening led to the memory of a book I was given to read sometimes to my then young son called The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein. But I was never able to because the mere thought of that poem makes me cry.

This is a poem you either love or hate.  I think, in a way, that I both love and hate it.

I never understood that poem until I was a mother.

Now, there is a real Giving Tree in Oakland, California.

It still makes me cry.

What am I crying for?  Youth lost?  A son grown?  I really don't know.

Is there a book, a poem, or a movie that makes you cry?

Tree (not an apple tree) Binghamton, New York, October 2016

12 comments:

  1. I am also a cryer and several songs will do it for me - Tender is the Night and the Days of Wine and Roses are two. Hearing them reminds me of the sadness of the movies themselves so I can cry without sitting through two hours of drama. I recently cried when I finished reading A Man Called Ove.

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  2. I cry quite easily too. It's frustrating sometimes but at other times, I just figure I feel too much. Love the idea of the giving tree and how beautiful are the leaves on that tree you've shared! It's autumn here and I can't wait for the leaves to turn red and orange and yellow...

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  3. My kids would always say- Abba, it's just a movie...
    Don't get me started with "This is Us"...

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  4. Oh, my! This brought back suck memories. The Giving Tree is my favorite Shel Silverstein book. I read many of his poems to my daughters when they were little but The Giving Tree was always our favorite. Like you, I could never get all the way to the end without crying, but it was worth it for the lessons learned.

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  5. Oh yes, cry babies unite! I cry at commercials and heart warming news stories. I come form a long line of criers. That said, I do not cry at work. If I feel a flood of tears welling up I rush to the rest room. Yes I have lied if caught in the work place blaming allergies, not really crying!

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  6. I've heard of that book, but haven't read it. I never used to be a crier, but the older I get the more I become one!

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  7. Love You Forever by Robert Munsch makes me tear up every time. My grown children think it's creepy.

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  8. Oh, wow, The Giving Tree... Depending on my mood, I could cry at the drop of a hat. The worst time was when I was covering an 11th grade English class and they were reading the end of Of Mice and Men. I was to read to them. I ended up bawling so bad someone else had to take over...

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  9. Since surviving breast cancer, most everything makes me cry. There's a TV commercial for a drug for people who have problems with "inappropriate crying," but that drug's not for me. I think I realize how fragile life is, how grateful I am to know God and have so many beautiful friends who support me. Just don't ask me to talk about any of them, or I'll cry. xoxox, Brenda

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  10. My boys and I LOVED The Giving Tree. It was Love You Forever that I couldn't read to them without crying.

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  11. Your post was very moving, Alana. The Giving Tree left me in tears and I'm anyway very emotional so I cry at small things very easily. Your image of the tree is very hauntingly beautiful.

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