To this day I can’t get through that book without becoming a sniveling mess. You articulate the reasons why so well. Another thing about the story that just kills me is that the boy is, to the tree, forever the boy: for the tree, whose love is so pure, he never loses his true nature — even though, as a young, then, mature, then old man, he himself can no longer connect with it. But it’s there, because the tree can feel it. Waaaaahhhhh!!!