secret garden

My mother teaches elementary school, and every year her class reads "The Secret Garden." She left her copy on the table at her house a few days when I was visiting recently, and since I had never read the book as a child, I picked it up and wandered through it. Strange and gorgeous little gem, and sometimes difficult. The characters sometimes think about each other in ways we no longer do, of course. No one expects to have any masters or servants. Still, we all expect to figure out how we belong to each other. At the end, it's a beautiful message: that by creating beauty you will belong to the world and live forever.