Most have heard motivational speakers, teachers, or grandmothers proclaim: “Dream big!”, “Shoot for the stars!”. In a small town like Endora, Iowa, “You believe it. You can achieve it!” is matched with an adversarial, “It’s easier said than done.”...

The popular children’s book The Giving Tree tells the story of a tree that loves a boy so completely and selflessly that it is willing to give up everything it has for the boy. Gilbert Grape is a realistic version of just that—a young man who...