Looking into The Selfish Giant

"You're building a wall to protect yourself,
you're just building a wall to defend yourself,
you're just building a wall that will break your heart."
~The Selfish Giant


As a child, my mother did her best to promote reading as a pleasurable past time. I remember as a very young child in the early Seventies being given a copy of Reader's Digest with the short story "The Selfish Giant" by Oscar Wilde. The magazine was somehow also a promotion for a Christmas television special which would be airing on television. My brother and I both read the story and eagerly awaited the television show, which did not disappoint. I'm sure we didn't "get" the message, though we loved the visuals, music and story.

I've found myself thinking of "The Selfish Giant" quite a bit recently--how he began very cold and separate from the rest of his community, how the love of the children made him realize his error and how despite changing his ways, the little boy who had first stirred the emotions in him remained elusive, that is, until the end.

How many of us go through a hardening of the heart when things seem too hard to bare... or share.

Though the movie may be too difficult, or too expensive, to purchase, there is always the Youtube'd segments like the one above, or the original Oscar Wilde story available here, enjoy either, or both..

Embrace your invincible summer!