Today I'm teaching Charlotte's Web. Every time I read it, I'm struck by what a truly brilliant novel it is in so many ways. I find it nurturing on a deep, deep level; this seems to me what literature should be. And it strikes me that this is a novel NOT about Fern or Wilbur, but about Charlotte, the spider. And what's remarkable about Charlotte is that she understands the value of relationships. My favorite moment is towards the end as Charlotte faces her death. She tells Wilbur, "After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. . . By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that." And this, to me, seems so central to understanding the book. Wilbur is, after all, not a particularly remarkable pig. And to save his life somehow goes against the natural order of things as it is emphasized in the book--even Charlotte lives because others die. And yet her remarkable love and devotion saves the life of unremarkable Wilbur. Maybe it's only through this sort of love that any of us can hope to "life up" our "lives a trifle." I don't know--just thoughts.