Tag: The Giving Tree

Arbor Day & The Giving Tree

the giving tree shel silverstein arbor day National Arbor Day is this week in the U.S. According to the Arbor Day website, Arbor Day has its seeds in the work of J. Sterling Morton.  He was a Nebraska journalist and later Nebraska territory secretary who advocated for the planting of trees.

After Nebraska made the day an official holiday in the late 1800’s, the state eventually selected April 22 as the date because it was Morton’s birthday. Other states also began celebrating Arbor Day in the 1870s.

Today, National Arbor Day always falls on the last Friday of April.  But some states celebrate Arbor Day on different dates depending on the planting season. Meanwhile, the holiday celebrating the planting of trees has spread around the world.

The Giving Tree

Planting trees is a nice thing to do for the earth for several reasons.  And we humans benefit from trees in numerous ways too. Perhaps the best illustration of our love and destruction of trees is in Shel Silverstein‘s great children’s book, The Giving Tree.

In the 1973 animated video below, Silverstein narrates the book for viewers.

The late Shel Silverstein is also known for many other works, including books and songs recorded by Johnny Cash. Yet, he may be most famous for The Giving Tree, a book that many children grew up reading.  For some reason, The Giving Tree was not a book in my childhood home so I came to it many years later as an adult.

I always find it interesting how different people react to the story. Some have very fond memories of the story and see it as a story of a loving tree who gives away everything it has.  But others get angry when they think of the tale, seeing it as a story about a selfish boy taking everything from the tree.

Is it a story of love and charity? Or is it a story of selfishness and domination? What does the last line — “And the tree was happy” — signify? One may come up with several theories about the book’s meaning, but the ambiguity is why the book has become a classic.  The book allows each of us to see different things, perhaps even understanding the story differently at different stages of our own lives.

No matter what you think of The Giving Tree, let’s take a moment to thank all of our tree friends this Arbor Day.

What do you think is the message of The Giving Tree? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Oregon’s Death Penalty: 25 Minutes to Go

    Johnny Cash Folsom Prison 25 Minutes to Go Last week, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber granted a reprieve to a condemned man and announced that he would do the same for any scheduled execution during the remainder of his term in office. Gov. Kitzhaber asked state officials to consider other options besides the death penalty and explained, “I simply cannot participate once again in something that I believe to be morally wrong,” Gov. Kitzhaber further explained that as a licensed physician he had taken an oath to “do no harm.” In making his emotional announcement, Gov. Kitzhaber told how he was haunted by the fact he had allowed Oregon’s only two modern executions.

    Whether one agrees with Gov. Kitzhaber or not, one must respect someone who is willing to admit he erred in the past and who takes a moral stand. Gov. Kitzhaber recognized that the trend around the world in recent years has been toward taking a moral stand against state killings when other options, like life in prison, exist. Recognizing there are a number of problems with the American death penalty, Gov. Kitzhaber is putting a moratorium on Oregon executions to allow the state to reconsider whether or not it wishes to continue executing people.

    The immediate reprieve stopped the execution of 49-year-old Gary Haugen, who had waived his appeals and wished to be executed. Haugen’s attorney noted that the condemned man, desiring his own execution, would not be happy with the reprieve.

    Haugen was within two weeks of his scheduled execution, but Johnny Cash performed a song going further in imagining a condemned man counting down the final 25 minutes before his execution. The song, “25 Minutes to Go,” was written by Shel Silverstein, who also wrote Cash’s hit song, “A Boy Named Sue.” One may hear Silverstein’s sense of humor even in a song like “25 Minutes to Go.” The song’s author may be best known for his children’s books, including The Giving Tree.

    In the following video, someone has put together some cool illustrations to go with Johnny Cash’s performance of “25 Minutes to Go” from his famous performance at Folsom Prison on Jan. 13, 1968. (Do you know who did the animation?) Check it out.

    You also may watch Cash in another live performance in a video on YouTube. Johnny Cash was another gutsy man like Gov. John Kitzhaber. I miss him.

    Bonus Johnny Cash-related Death Penalty News: Johnny’s daughter Roseanne Cash is reuniting with her ex-husband Rodney Crowell for an anti-death penalty concert in Nashville on December 19. John Hiatt will also perform.

    What do you think of Johnny Cash’s “25 Minutes to Go”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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