Dear Dr. Laura, 

I cannot tell you how much I admire you and respect what you say about marriage, relationships, and raising kiddos. 

I have heard you speak on the air about O. Henry's “Gift of the Magi” and I always chuckle to myself when you talk about how teachers do not teach real literature in public schools anymore. I am a high school English teacher, and I do teach this story when I am teaching situational irony and theme. We talk about the irony of Jim and Della sacrificing the thing that they held most dear to buy the other a Christmas gift that would be dear to them. 

I always ask students at the end of the semester what was their favorite story that we read in class and 9 students out of 10 say “Gift of the Magi”. They all say how moved they were by two people doing something so selfless for each other, and a lot of them say that they hope to have that kind of relationship with someone in the future. 

What an important story for people to read. Not just high school students, either. It should be a law that anyone getting married should have to read “Gift of the Magi” and “Proper Care and Feeding of Marriage”. We can dream, right?

Please keep doing what you do. 

Audrey