These Two Kids’ Books Will Always Make Me Cry

“As long as I’m living…”

I can barely open this book before the tears well up. And I can’t even say what about it makes me cry. But cry I did when I came upon it today in a clean up moment. The back of the book says, “This is a story about how that little boy goes through the stages of childhood and becomes a man. It is also about the enduring nature of parents’ love and how it crosses generations.”

Nicely said, but those words don’t make me cry. I think it’s an ambush.

“There is a third thing you must do.”

This one I can read. All the way through. It’s about beauty. And doing what you said you’d do and giving back. For you can “go to faraway places” and when you grow old, you can “live beside the sea.”

But there is a third thing you must do. “You must do something to make the world more beautiful.”

And sometimes it takes a whole lifetime to figure out just what that could be.

(Is it coincidental that there are cats in each of these books?)