Revisiting Charlotte ...

For the past few weeks, I have been reading Charlotte's Web to my daughter, a chapter or so each night before bed.

It was a childhood favourite of mine (like many of you), but I hadn't read it in over 30 years, nor had I seen the movie(s) of the story (hard to believe, I know!). So I enjoyed the sense of almost-new discovery that re-reading it brought.

As we read the early chapters, I began to worry about how Mei Le would react to the notion of Wilbur being killed and eaten. I am a vegetarian, but have not insisted she be one (I believe it's her choice). I have been up-front about what meat is and where it comes from, but she is only 5, so I am not sure if she completely gets the finality of death nor the graphic reality of meat ...

I was therefore both saddened and heartened by her truly genuine sobs when she shared Wilbur's realization of his planned death, and her defiance (like his) in refusing it. I tried to console her with promises that Charlotte would help to save him, and that we would have to read on to find out how.

All the while, I more deeply feared my own reactions to Charlotte's ultimate death ... Would I be able to read that part to my daughter without embarassing tears? (Not likely). Would she understand why I was crying? (Probably only partly). Not surprisingly, I struggled through the passages describing Wilbur and Templeton leaving Charlotte to die, alone, at the fairgrounds ... tears streaming down my face ... ultimately unable to read the final paragraphs of that chapter. "Why are you crying, Mommy?" Mei Le asked. "Because it's just so sad," was all I could muster in reply.

For Charlotte is the true hero of the book ... committing her time, her energy, and such a major part of her short life to helping her porcine friend be seen by humans for his true self - not just another spring pig to stock the larder. (Tho every other pig has the same potential ... if ever anyone paid attention).

The image of Charlotte weak, but satisfied, inisting on being left alone to her inevitable death, never able to see her children nor the fruits of her labours on behalf of Wilbur, still brings me to tears ... I am struck by how Charlotte completely and elegantly encapsulates all that motherhood is: to love, to chastise, to motivate, to sacrifice, to advocate, to tire, to help her charges reach their full potential, and ultimately to accept that her children will go forth without her ... it is all so right and so real and so sad.

A recent NPR article about Charlotte suggests that I am in good company:

Even White himself, when he recorded the audiobook in 1970, had trouble getting through that scene. "He broke down — just as I did," recalled audiobook producer Joe Berk in a 1991 NPR interview. "We did 17 takes. ... We went on a short walk, and he turned to me, and he said, 'It's ridiculous: a grown man reading a book that he wrote, and being unable to read it aloud because of tears.' "

Charlotte presents a powerful role model for us all - an object lesson in what do do when faced with that moment of choice ... to do what is right or to turn away ... I only hope I can live up to the spider's example.