In 1939, one of the most
beloved films of the 20th century would hit the silver screen and
would send audiences somewhere over the rainbow for generations to come.
This was a film that had a
cast of unique characters, indeed.
A Kansas girl with bewitched
slippers. A Tin Man with no heart. A Lion with no courage. A Scarecrow
with no brain. A Wizard with an identity crisis!
When an unforgiving tornado
whips thru a small farm in Kansas, young Dorothy and her dog were whisked away
in their home to find themselves in the magical land of Oz. Here she meets
Glinda the Good Witch who tells her that all she must do is follow the yellow
brick road to the Emerald City and see the Wizard and he can help her get back
home. While she willingly skips along the path, she befriends The Tin Man The
Scarecrow and The Lion. One by one, they are introduced and share with Dorothy
what they lack and what they are in desperate need of. One by one, she invites
them to link arms with her in her journey to the Emerald City singing songs of
“If I only had a….”
Our unusual quartet finally
arrives at the Emerald City. Here they see what appears to be the Wizard and he
will grant them their wishes if they complete an impossible task- kill
the Witch of the West and bring him her broomstick. What? With people who
have no brains or courage?! Uh, can I switch teams here? Alas, the merry
band of misfits continue their journey thru a haunted forest and fight off
scary winged monkeys. After working as a team and summoning their inner
strength and creative problem solving skills, they do the unthinkable. They
kill the Witch! How you ask? By something they had never thought of and
didn’t even mean to do. By simply throwing water on the Witch, it melted her
good! Dorothy and her posse are now heroes. When presenting the Wizard
with the broomstick, they come to find out that the “Great and Powerful Wizard”
is not a Wizard, but an old man behind a curtain pretending to have all the
answers.
What we find out about The
Tin Man, The Lion and The Scarecrow is that is what they had so desperately
needed and looked to the Wizard to give them, were the innate qualities they
had all along. They just needed the opportunity to bring them into the light.
The point of this story is
this: When we are presented with a problem, we have a tendency to look to
someone else to solve it. We can get pacified by the ease of the phrase
“someone else will do it.” We can be lured down a road; trusting that the
answer lies within someone else. We show more strength by asking for someone to
teach us and are then given the opportunity to use the tools that we
already possess and yet so easily we can be afraid of summoning. Yes, even our courage,
brains and heart.
If on the path of the yellow
brick road you find a man and give him a fish, he will eat for only a day. If
you teach a man to fish, he will eat for a lifetime.
