While sifting through boxes and suitcases from a previous life, I came across an old treasure. It was actually three treasures, three cassette tape recordings of Charlotte’s Web, read by the author, E.B. White. I hadn’t listened to them for years so, of course, I brought them back with me to Paris and listened to them in one sitting, from start to finish.

They had lost none of its charm. The book itself was a watershed moment in my life, and it all came pouring back as I listened to White with his slow, relaxed recitation of his most famous work. As I listened, I was aware how truly profound an effect it had on me and how it prepared me for my life as an adult. There were some valuable lessons to glean from this seemingly simple story, lessons that have steered me through some rough roads over the years. I toss them out now, like Luvry pours out a bucket of slops into Wilbur’s trough. These are all subjective, of course, my own interpretations. I list them in no particular order, only to line them up like the rows of corn on Zuckerman’s farm.

1. The Importance of Friendship - This is the most obvious lesson in the book and the one, I fear, I have the hardest time learning. No matter where we live, especially amid the cacophony of an anxious, fitful metropolis, people can drive us crazy. We can make numerous acquaintances but few real friends, those folks who will listen to you whine about work or a neighbor or a husband, those who really do care what you ate for lunch. Charlotte was a good friend, steadfast and true. Wilbur was a good friend too, but slower to come around. But in the end he honored his best companion. He said, “To you, her daughters, I pledge my friendship, for ever and ever.” What truer sign of friendship is there?

There’s a lesson of “belonging” as well, being a part of a group, a barnyard, a family. Wilbur was fortunate that he was thrown into an encouraging barnyard. Some of us have a harder time. But there is always a Charlotte to our Wilbur out there, somewhere.

2. Diversity In People - The Zuckerman barnyard was a microcosm of the world, illustrating the diverse personalities we deal with every day. There are the good and true (Charlotte), the innocent and naïve (Wilbur), the self-centered glutton (Templeton), the busybody know-it-all (the geese) and the unimaginative, not-one-original-thought-so-we’ll-follow-the-crowd sheep (er, um, the sheep). It’s what makes life aggravating but at the same time wonderfully interesting and lively.

3. Life Is Sorrowful - White doesn’t pull any punches; right from the get-go he shows us the injustice of life - John Arable is off to the hog house with an axe. A fly is caught in Charlotte’s web and eaten (complete with her venom to put her victim to sleep). Charlotte dies and she dies alone. Charlotte’s Web is front-forward with some of the cruel realities of life. The Buddha says, “All life is sorrowful, that’s the nature of life.” For me the saddest moment is when Fern “…did not come regularly to the barn any more. She was growing up and careful to avoid childish things, like sitting on a milk stool near a pig pen.” What parent hasn’t experienced that? But life is also mixed and filled with good things. Goslings hatch. Baby spiders climb out of their egg sac. Spring pigs always arrive. A spider’s web shimmers with morning dew. We are surrounded by miracles every day, we need only to see them.

4. Animals Can Talk - Well, duh!

5. There Are Rarely Real Villains in Life - No one is a true bad guy in Charlotte’s Web. Everyone acts from their own perspectives, what they see as the truth. John Arable is just doing his duty with his axe. Templeton is a rat, and does an excellent job with his “ratty-ness.” Charlotte sucks the blood out of flies because that’s who she is. As she says, “It’s true, … I’m not entirely happy about my diet of flies, but it’s the way I’m made.” In life itself most of us are doing our duty, performing our jobs the best we know how. The trick is knowing what that job is and throwing ourselves fully into it.

There are other lessons to learn from Charlotte’s Web, I’m sure. Someone much smarter than I could point them out. But, like any sacred text, there is a wealth of interpretations and a grand mix of myth, metaphor and message. It’s also a darn good story. It’s been around since 1952, a short 56 years, but the lessons are timeless. White just wanted to write about his barn. But he ended up teaching us about life and the world.

And the miracle of a beloved manure pile.

Doug Cushman is a former Redding artist and author who now lives and works in Paris. He was born in Springfield,Ohio,and moved to Connecticut with his family at the age of 15. In high school he created comic books lampooning his teachers, selling them to his classmates for a nickel apiece. Since 1978, he has illustrated and/or written more than 100 books for children and collected a number of honors, including a Reuben Award for Book Illustration from the National Cartoonists Society, New York Times Children’s Books Best Sellers, and the New York Public Library’s Best 100 Books of 2000. He enjoys hiking, kayaking and cooking (and eating!). Learn more at his website, doug-cushman.com.