To Oz

Years ago, moviegoers experienced the Hollywood premiere of the film classic The Wizard of Oz; the story of a young girl named Dorothy who lands in a magical place called Oz, where she embarks on a journey to track down a wizard who might help her get home.

Oz. The name is believed to have come from the ‘O-Z’ drawer of L. Frank Baum’s filing cabinet but it is also reminiscent of Shelley’s poem about a not-so-mighty ‘Ozymandias, king of kings’. No matter. When MGM’s movie version of Baum’s tale was released, the United States was faced with trials more menacing than flying monkeys. The pall of the Great Depression had not completely lifted. Germany was about to drag much of the world into a Second World War of the twentieth century.Escape came as Dorothy Gale is caught in the vortex of a Kansas cyclone and transported from a dreary Kansas farmhouse into a technicolour land where trees talk and horses change colour. Allegedly, the only one who can help her get home is the great Wizard of Oz himself, and so she sets off for the Emerald City to find him. En route she is joined by three creatures, each of whom has his own favour to ask of the Wizard: a scarecrow who wants a brain, a tin woodman who yearns for a heart and a lion who is searching for courage.

There are two surprises about the wonderful Wizard of Oz. First of all, the fiery visage and voice do not come from a wizard at all but from a man creating visual hokum with smoke and mirrors.

The other surprise is that though he is a mere mortal, he is still a great wizard of sorts. He sees through the wishes of the traveling companions. With the help of his reassuring words and a talisman or two, they come to their senses and find that they always had what they thought would complete them. After all, the Scarecrow had all the ideas, the Tin Woodman was sentimental to a fault and it was the Lion who led the assault on the witch’s castle to rescue Dorothy.

More than a tale of surprises, however, are the lesson gleaned on this trip down a yellow brick road. Like Dorothy’s three amigos, we often want one thing we are convinced will make us complete. We think, “My heart is not like other people’s hearts. My brain is stuffed with other people’s ideas. Some days I don’t have the courage to look at myself in the mirror. Maybe someday I’ll be completed by some sort of wizardry.”

What we learn from Oz is that a brain belongs to the one who knows he is as much of a fool as a Scarecrow but who does everything a Scarecrow can. How can you not have a heart when you feel broken-hearted? The medal of bravery the Wizard pins on the Cowardly Lion is merely a reward for the courage the lion has already shown. Courage, after all, belongs to the one who, in the face of fear, acts courageously.

Poor Dorothy, who just wants to go back to the farm where she belongs, is taken there with the wish and the realization that there’s no place like home. In the final movie scene, Dorothy sits up in her bed in her room, hugs her dog Toto, looks up at the people she loves and says “Oh Aunti Em, there’s no place like home.” At that point, no matter how many times I’ve seen the movie, and I’ve lost count, the predicable lump wells in my throat.

I know as well as I know anything in this life, that Dorothy Gale is right. Nothing can touch the joy of being in the place where you ought to be.