City of Emeralds

This St. Patrick's day I find myself in the City of Emeralds. I wish I could say that I was traveling through Ireland, but if not Ireland than the Emerald City of OZ will have to do. I hope the Irish will not mind this post about an American author on their celebrated day. But as I see it, St. Patrick did more than send snakes away, he cherished, wrote, and recorded stories.

For the last month I have been--slowly--reading a biography on the life of L.Frank Baum (L. Frank Baum Creator of OZ: A Biography by Katharine M. Rogers) As I read about his successes and failures (he didn't find his true calling as a children's author until age 40--there may be hope for me yet), I was intrigued to find a man who created--without knowing it--an American classic.

Many of us may think we know the story by heart, because of our viewing of the MGM vibrant colored film. Judy Garland, and her farm girl pigtails, are iconic. But Dorothy and her story goes so much further than one film. OZ has been adapted and embedded within our culture to an extent that the original story has been shelved away, and yet we still understand the phrase, "There's no place like home," or "We're not in Kansas anymore."

So it is, that I took the book off the shelf again. And as I traipse through OZ with Dorothy, the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion, I find myself reminded of the great land Baum created. A land that was structured after America. And I wonder what his thoughts were in 1900? For he states the story was written "merely to please."

Please it has, and yet--as any scholar of tales will tell you--there was a purpose. A moral. A value placed upon this land and the characters. Dorothy's quest is like so many of ours, we are all constantly trying to find our way back home from the cyclones of life that so easily sweep us off our feet. And if I have learned anything from her trek (and L. Frank Baum's story), it is to keep my head high, think things through clearly, allow friends to help, and never let someone tell you things can't be done (also, it doesn't hurt to have a pair of magical-silver shoes).