Classic Burden Lifted

I recently had a conversation with a friend about children's books and it reminded me about a family conference I attended a few years back at BYU-Idaho and it was all worth it because of one lady! She was full of amazing ideas but one thing she said will forever stick with me. It basically was,

'if it's a classic to you it's a classic. just because people say it's a classic doesn't mean it is. classic is what your family LOVES so make your own list of classics'

I felt as if a weight was lifted off my shoulders because of ONE particular book at the time (that's right ONE book was causing me grief!)
This one: the giving tree by Shel Silverstein

known to MANY as a classic

I hate despise want to burn it  could never get into it. While others see the great goodness of the tree I see the selfishness of the boy/man and I think it's awful! I would have just tossed it aside but everyone keeps talking about how it's such a classic.
And this is a hard area for me because I want to be more cultured and I want my children to be cultured. I was born in raised in a small cow town of gentleman farmers, as my in-laws would say (they grew up in farming Idaho), my parent's brought me home to a trailer- yep trailer trash! ha!- by the age of five my dad had finished building our home and we moved in- not too trailer trash people- but while my friends did ballet, ballroom, and painting I climbed trees, rode horses, and had mud rolling contests. I LOVE my childhood but wish I would have pushed myself to be more cultured, especially as I got older. So whenever I here the word classic I yearn to put it in my life and raise my children on it. Ridiculous I know!
So here I was stuck between thinking, it's a classic we need to LOVE it and OWN it and thinking it has an awful message and I don't want it in my home. And then this angel said what she said and the clouds parted, rays of sunshine came flooding in, and trumpets played hosannas! alright not quite, but I comfortably went home grabbed the book and returned it to the library with no plans of reading it again.

I understand by definition what a classic is but I have resigned to create my own classics, my own traditions, and LOVE it! and I wish you well on your journey too.