My favorite classical story,
actually does involve a good moral. My favorite story as a kid was The
Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. The story is of a tree that loves this
little boy who comes to the tree everyday. He would make crowns from her
leaves, climb her trunk, swing from her braches, eat her apples, and then would
play hide and go seek. Once tired the boy would stay with the tree and sleep in
her shade. The boy loved the tree, which made the tree happy. But, as the boy
got older and time went on, the boy grew farther apart from the tree, leaving
her alone a lot, but the boy came back to the tree in a time of need. Instead
of climbing or swinging with her though, he ask the tree if she could give him
some money, but she didn’t have any, so she gave him all of her apples so that
he could sell them and have money, which made the tree happy. After this
though, he stayed away for quite a while again, until he need a house because
he wanted a wife and children, so the tree gave him all of her branches so that
he could make himself a house, which again made the tree happy. Again though,
he stayed away for quite a while after he left, until again he needed
something, this time a boat to sail far away, so the tree gave him her trunk to
make a boat out of, leaving her with just the stump, so that he could be happy.
Finally, after quite some time he came back, but the tree told him that she had
nothing more to give him and that she was sorry, but the now old man needed a
place to sit and rest, which the tree, or stump, was able to provide, which
made the tree happy.
This story has taught me two
things. It is great to give freely, especially that giving, or selflessness,
will make others happy, and makes you just as happy, if not more. Giving and
selflessness is an all around happy encounter for all. But, the other thing
that this story has taught me is not to take things for granted. The boy always
came to the tree expecting everything, but once given what he needed/wanted, he
didn’t seem to be thankful and selfless back to the tree. It’s GIVE and take.
It shows how not to go through life without noticing what people have done for
us and that even when they seem to have nothing left to give us, they do and
can give even more, this person mainly being God. We come to God in times of
need, rather than always. We also seem to forget about all of the gifts we are
given, and we seem not so thankful. Life requires awareness or reflection,
especially in having a good and close relationship with God. We must always be
with him, not come to him.
One
person in my life that has taught me many things is my Grandpa, mostly of
giving. On my birthday a few days ago, I was going to go out after school with
my girlfriend to have lunch, so I told him of my plans on the way home. I
wasn’t quite sure where exactly we would go when he asked. I told him though,
that my mom had given me money because she knew I was going out, and that I was
fine on money, because he loves to pay, because of his great generosity. As I
was getting out of the car, he handed me a five-dollar bill, and told me that
he knew it wouldn’t buy it all, but it might get me something, even though he
knew I didn’t even need it. This story has giving me the experience of seeing
what giving freely is all about. He didn’t give me the money because I needed
it, it was because he wanted to give me something to make my birthday a little
better, by giving me a few bucks, because he knew that he wouldn’t be at lunch.
Giving freely is something great to work towards, and my Grandpa is a great
example of this to help me be this generous of a person, to make others days
better even if it’s in the littlest ways.