Coffee and Unpack: The Giving Tree and the Cost of Selflessness

You probably read The Giving Tree as a kid. Maybe someone read it to you. It’s 30 pages, no big words, a tree and a boy.

And yet.

Some people close that book feeling warm, moved by a love so pure it gives everything without asking for anything back. Other people close it feeling quietly devastated, like they just watched someone disappear in slow motion and nobody called it what it was.

We’re not here to tell you which read is correct. We’re here to sit with the fact that both reactions are completely reasonable, and that tension is worth an hour of your time and a cup of coffee.

We’ll talk about love, sacrifice, boundaries, and what it actually means to give. We’ll ask whether the tree was happy, really or whether happiness was beside the point. We’ll probably ask whether you’ve ever been the tree. Or the boy. Or both at different points in your life.