“There’s no place like home.” Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz.

If you’ve been here before, you’ve no doubt noticed I’ve been swimming in the waters of “home” lately.

For me, it’s like a lake that’s both warm and bracing, placid and choppy. And for the most part, I enjoy that duality.

In fact, over the years my inner conversations about this topic have varied dramatically. One day it’s a casual chat; the next it’s like being back in high school French class, listening to Madame Marie’s words with every fiber of my being, yet still only understanding half of what she was saying.

So it’s been refreshing to take the conversation out of my head and onto the page. A page that will be read, no less. How glorious it is to have you as a witness and participant!

For those of you who haven’t been here before, though, let me quickly bring you up-to-date: in my first post I pondered the nature of home; in the next I wondered aloud what it means to actually revisit home.

And from the comments came a tumble of hard-earned wisdom that magnificently enlarges the traditional notions of home. So I made meaning of it by putting it into a word collage. Take a look…

Home means nature, love, heart, mind, comfort, sanctuary, peace, people, sharing, safety, self, beauty, relationships, understanding, wholeness, everywhere, shelter, nest, recharge, friend.

Revisiting home means insight, reclaiming parts of me, savoring, self, in the moment, simpler times, making peace, roots, childhood play, memories awakening.

As I was assembling the words, I couldn’t help but notice their depth and sensitivity. And in that moment I recognized all the life experiences they represented. In fact, I had such a sense of the lived experiences of others, both those who commented and those who didn’t, that it momentarily took my breath away.

It was quite remarkable.

So much so that I was reminded me of something I’d forgotten. That before we ever get to a complete appreciation of what home means, or what going home means, we have to, in fact, leave home.

And leave home we do, throughout our lives.

But I don’t just mean those times when we box up our stuff, pack up the car, and hit the road to a new dwelling. No, I mean all those times we leave a role or stage of life, in order to transition to a new one.

Youth to adult. Student to worker. Single to couple. Renter to homeowner. Child-free to parenting. Job to jobless. First half of life to second half of life. Married to divorced. Parenting to empty nest. Employee to business owner. Midlife to old age. Working to retirement. Living to dying.

And on and on and on it goes. A continuous cycle of transitions with frequent stops along the way. Not all the same ones for each of us, mind you, but plenty to last a lifetime.

So actually, we leave home a lot. At least in the metaphorical sense.

No wonder we’re surrounded by so many stories, in books and movies, about leaving home, going on an adventure, and returning with newfound riches or insights.

One of my favorites is the Wizard of Oz, which celebrated its 70th anniversary this year. In it, Dorothy takes the classic Hero’s Journey.

In case you don’t remember, Dorothy is restless, living in dry, drought-ridden place from which she longs to escape. She hears the call of a new world, somewhere over the rainbow. But just as she decides against going, she’s forced, by a violent tornado, into a strange and magical land like nothing she’s ever imagined. Much to her surprise, she meets a whole host of unusual creatures – munchkins, witches, flying monkeys, talking scarecrows, tin men, cowardly lions, wizards – some who are allies, others who are enemies. From the get-go she decides she wants to go home, but before she can she must continue her quest (first to find the wizard, then to get the broom). Throughout her journey she faces tests, trials, and near-death experiences. Although she finally succeeds in claiming the prize (the broom), she has one final lesson to learn: that she has had the power to return home all along, because she is wearing the ruby slippers.

As Dorothy clicks her heels three times, she completes the ritual of return. And those ruby slippers represent all that she brings back home with her: courage, heart, and wisdom.

I recently came upon a lovely blog, Story Tour. It’s the home of a traveling Jewish storyteller, Rabbi Rachmiel Tobesman, who uses the power of storytelling to educate and bring insight. I discovered a story there about The Wizard of Oz that eloquently described the quest we all undertake, with each life transition and deep passage, towards wholeness:

When we first begin to awaken, we realize just how far from home, or our true selves, we really are…But eventually, like Dorothy and her companions, we come to realize that the strength we seek outside ourselves already exists within us. We only need to turn inward to discover our courage, heart, and wisdom. By focusing…on our deep longing to return…we find our way home.

We are home – the beginning and the end. The place where we start and the place we return to. We complete the cycle, a cycle we enter many times during our lives. And just as Dorothy learned, each time we conclude the metaphorical ritual of return we bring back riches, our own version of the ruby slippers.

WHAT ABOUT YOUR RUBY SLIPPERS?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. If I added all of my life transitions up with yours, and his, and hers, and all of those who read this, well, we’d have a lot of ruby slippers clicking away. A bounty of courage, wisdom, and heart flying around. But what is that, really? Just words, it seems to me. So what if we expressed our riches a different way? What if we did it with symbol, image, or metaphor?

Mine would be the redwood tree, that ancient giant that lives through storms and fires, and knows how to heal itself. Its roots are somewhat shallow, so it can better change with the times. Yes, if I was stranded in Oz, I’d hug this tree and whisper, “Take me home.”

How about you? What symbol, image, or metaphor represents the riches you’ve accumulated from your life’s transitions and deep passages?

I always loved the original illustrations for the Oz books by W.W. Denslow, as well as the equally nifty work of William Stout. And since they say imitation is the finest form of flattery, here’s me trying to flatter them both. I hope to do a lot more of these, especially some Munchkins, Flying Monkeys and my favorites, Tic-Toc and Jack.

The Notion of Fact v. the Idea of Fiction: Kirk Cameron’s Modus Operandi? “Speak Softly, but Carry a Big [D]ick!”
By Jimmy M.
A few weeks ago, I discussed an article on Kirk Cameron’s self-crusade to debunk the “lies” of Evolution sinking the education of college students across the nation. If I could be serious for a moment, I would like to point out the land of make believe Kirk finds himself in. Take it from me, he is like Dorothy in Oz except everything is reversed. The evil witch and Glenda are one in the same: they are the public consciousness. The people in Oz are more intellectual than Dorothy or Toto would ever be, and the path Dorothy is on isn’t a yellow brick road: it is a mirage of a golden sea. Kirk Cameron finds himself surrounded by fool’s gold and Ray Comfort, his evangelical partner in crime, is his Toto. Cameron has carried out that crusade and the tactics he has used are failing him terribly. His critics, those who witness his “conversion attempts”, claim he has a Sarah Palin-esque style of debating. How can this be further from the truth when the center of his argument relies on the shape of a banana? For those who are unfamiliar with Cameron, he is a former child-actor for the television sitcom Growing Pains. Cameron is also a reformed or born-again Christian, revealing in old interviews that at the age of 17 he didn’t believe in God and claims that part of the reason for his unbelieving is what he learned from his teachers at school. He now works in a ministry with Comfort, and can be seen on a radio turned television show called The Way of The Master. For Cameron the main battleground is colleges across the nation and about two weeks ago he found himself in the enemy camp of UCLA and face to face with a female student defending his “banana theory”. This girl right here in the Wizard Of Oz reference is the Wizard and the baloon is the banana.
Cameron’s banana theory argues for creationism and intelligent design. He states that the banana and the shape of which it grows is evidence for intelligent design because it was made with a purpose to nourish both humans and its closest relatives, monkeys. I don’t think Kirk Cameron is fully aware of just how ridiculous his arguments are and furthermore sound to a college student. Why did he just pick the banana? There are so many other objects that have been “tailored” for use by humans. To apply it to one without consideration of the others severly injures the credibility of his opinions.
If Cameron wants people to take him seriously he should seek guidance immediately from his evangelical friends, people who tend to know a great deal MORE about what he believes than himself, apparently. Another thing that is quite irksome about Cameron is how he stumbled with that girl in UCLA. The girl student in UCLA, in her sophomore year, tore Cameron to pieces asking him to explain how Evolution and Darwin themselves are tied directly to Hitler and not the corruption of those ideas for personal gain. Cameron could not win the argument and stumbled by saying it just is, sciences itself is just bad. Those were his words verbatim. Hope he isn’t selected for any commencement ceremonies next year.
But I have stated all of this, and if you feel a need to side with Cameron and defend what he is stating, here is the final piece of information that you need to know. Kirk Cameron stated to this girl at the offset of the debate that the theory of evolution was based on religion and that alone. The girl quickly replied no it was based on solid evidence. Here too is another rudimentary flaw by Cameron, he fails to understand how scientists actually go about retrieving their data in the field. Mr. Cameron, it is called the scientific method. I am not close-minded in saying that Kirk Cameron is entirely wrong. What I am saying is that Kirk Cameron is making a jackass of himself without having any strong points or firm evidence to prove his claims.
For Kirk Cameron, this isn’t television. You are not going to be on a set and have an audience applauding you after you do a segment. You don’t have writers to feed you your lines, you’re alone on this one. The results of how you debate only prove one thing basically: television really is the boob tube and it is also a tube of plenty – plenty of nothing. In the realm of what is fact and what is fiction, Kirk Cameron resides in the world of fiction. Even the Roadrunner is closer to reality than this guy is. I saw him at Wegman’s. True story.

I was searching for the song “Wizard of Oz,” by Toy Box. I found it on youtube but couldn’t purchase it from my normal websites.

Then I found it and apparently it is “Euro” music, or European Dance Music! I was able to locate a site but was not able to figure out how to burn it other than on Itunes.

Anyway, I was able to download it, then find instructions on the internet and I think I will do this song to finish up the Wizard of Oz karaoke.

Also, I when I get my Lion’s Costume, I will sing 2 versions of Courage, the one by the Whitest Boys Alive and Courage Is by The Strange Familiar. I especially like the words to “Courage Is,” for we want to “live” as a race even if we are in pain or fear.

Here is again the Wizard of Oz song from Germany performed by gals from USA. They are quite energetic and their costumes are made from things around the house which is a good start.

The song “Courage Is,” by Strange Familiar. I think if I had to sum up my autobiography it would be with these lyrics:

The Whitest Boys Ever: Courage filmed in our fellow White country of London, England. These people are really jamming in the audience. It looks like it was filmed in a foyer or shopping mall:

Still looking for Christmas gifts? Looking for something interesting to do midweek?

Try the Portobello Road Winter Festival.  Offering free film screenings, dance workshops, free tastings, food markets and a Santa’s Grotto, the market – along Portobello Road and Golborne Road offers a host of entertainment.

In addition, Martin Miller’s Gin are offering free cocktails throughout the festival between 6-7pm – woohoo!

The market takes place from 4-9pm every Wednesday until December 16.  Check out the website for more details and download the flyer to take advantage of various discounts and offers.

This week’s films are The Wizard of Oz and Paris Is Burning.

Nearest Tube: Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill Gate or Westbourne Park

The Tin Man has his heart!

Remember that park I wrote about in yesterday’s blog post, the one in Chicago where I snapped those sunset photos?

The Tin Man stands very tall in Chicago's Oz Park.

It’s called Oz Park. Yep, named after the one and only Wizard of Oz. Except I didn’t notice a statue of the wizard there. But I did see a lot of other well-loved characters (besides my brother’s family, of course).

Dorothy wearing those ruby slippers and Toto

Why an Oz Park in Chicago?

The Tin Man's plaque

Because Frank Baum wrote the tale when he lived in the windy city. “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” was the best-selling children’s book for two years after it was published. And who among us hasn’t loved the movie? As kids, my siblings and I looked forward to the one time it was on TV every year.

The light starts to dim on the Scarecrow.

What a neat idea to name a park after such a popular children’s book and populate it with statues of some of the characters! Unfortunately for me and my Nikon D700, the daylight was in a full-scale retreat by the time we reached the Scarecrow, making it difficult to properly light him.

Will this scarecrow do?

Fortunately, I already had photographed a whimsical-looking scarecrow in someone’s front yard as we walked to the park. He’d never make it as part of the Wizard of Oz cast, but the light was much better. Plus he’s really cute!

Jacob, Erika, Owen and Serena

We are busy working on our end of year production, The Wizard of Oz, to be performed in the Karapiro Hall on Monday 14 December at 7 pm. This has been a real team effort with every child playing a part and many parents and friends contributing to the music, costumes and scenery. We are looking forward to a fun night during which we will also farewell our Year 6 students as they move on the Middle School. We hope to see you there!

one golden leaf left… save it…back in room…under pillow…step out…music following me…shadow…of sound..at computer…dark…tip toe around cables…angelic dance… dance of angels… i want to see one…”show me an angel”.. close my eyes…”show me an angel dancing with the wind”…beautiful..

i am dancing too… while seated… head moving… like dogs… in back of car… wobble… mind creates new body…new body dances as i close my eyes… to the music… sway… sway… eyes closed.. typing… mmhh… not very hard… words of song… communicate..not listening… but understanding…like a tree…swaying.. in the breeze… the tree doesn’t know… the story of the wind…but the leaves catch glimpses of the winds travels… dust and holes… sand and dirt… as the wind passes through… i am the treee…i am the second body… swaying…watching… someone else’s life… the leaves are my fingers… typing this here now..

the story of the wind… that blew across every ocean… picking up water… dirt.. dust.. and sand… the wind made rain… hailstorms..cyclones…typhoons… the wind brought your house down.. it didn’t mean to.. the wind is sorry…forgive the wind… intentions are pure… to wash over you like water… holy water… pure.. wind can never be pure… we only pollute… with thoughts and digressions… we are never true to ourselves..are you true to you… are you real…are you illusion..magic trick…hat trick… pull out a rabbit… abra cadabra… follow the rabbit..down the hole… down the whole bottle… fall fall fall into the pit… through the cyclone… the wind will show you…your life…your house…your mother… father…sister…brother…wind will take you somewhere..you will not survive… but you will leave this place… dorothy.. i’m so sorry… but kansas was never where you were maent to be… alice… poor alice… your mind is a wonderland…but your body bores me to tears… i’m crying… rain is falling… turning cold… into snow… fallling snow.. i’m so sorry.

said the wind.

This impeccably chic highlighter is undeniably aesthetically appealing. I would call this the “star” product for Chanel 2009 Holiday Collection.

It was  ( yes, was ) the must have product when the collection first launched. I  bought it without second though the moment it got on the counter in Harvey Nichols.

Here is a closer look of this compact powder highlighter; Its intervened pattern really resembles the fabric of Chanel tweed jacket.

However, I find it too shimmery for day time wear. It has a rather bold, vivid metallic golden sheen on the skin ( despite being applied light handed with  blusher brush, toned down with pressed powder on top ).

It’s great for night out  ( I was wearing this during Halloween ) but I just could not wear it during day light hours as it makes me looks like  Tin Man.

I wish it’s not that glittery / frosty ( The golden particles are really dense, in fact its finish resembles  Facettes D’Or  - Gold Fever ).

To me, it’s just another pretty to look at, collectible item.

the past three weeks have been a whirlwind for me. between ramping up for a week away, then going away, then back last week with a lot to catch up and plan before another trip. now, i am the first one to admit that i love to travel. i always have and always will. there is something exciting and stimulating to me when my bags are packed and it is the night before i leave on a vacation. i love the memories, the snap shots, the laughs. i love the pure and utter happiness that i feel when i am experiencing something and somewhere new. i love to plan the trip, take the trip, talk about the trip, and relive the trip. and, i am notorious for being on a trip and planning my next trip. so i think you can get, that i love to travel.

however, that being said, there is nothing quite like my home. i got home last night from a weekend away with my mom in grove city, pennsylvania (for black friday and the american thanksgiving weekend), and didn’t arrive home until after 1:00 am. i was exhausted and knowing that i had to get myself organized for another very busy week ahead of me didn’t help the exhaustion. after catching up with jess (for about 5 minutes) we went to sleep.

and this morning the alarm went off too soon. i filled my day. then, the best thing of all happened. jess, lewis and i did nothing. after dinner we watched tv, snuggled and happily enjoyed reuniting with each other. and then it hit me, we have built our own little family, and our own little home. we have built a life – and it is simply wonderful.

my heart has never been so full of love for my life, my love, and my family than it is at this very moment. i am SO BLESSED.

there is nothing like a trip away – but, as dorothy wisely said, there is no place like home.

From Swemson’s Open Thread yesterday which highlighted how little private sector experience Obama’s cabinet has:

2009 November 29

tar and feathers permalink

I think it’s important to have some solid private sector experience AND not be crazy. Otherwise you get Ross Perot, Ron Paul, or some Libertarian candidate.

This entirely sensible comment from one of my favorite NewsReal regular commenters was met with an entirely predictable response from the Emerald City. Tar and Feathers should known better than to casually drop the Good Doctor’s name:

2009 November 30

Wizard of Oz permalink

So you believe that Ron Paul would be a bad choice for the country? He’s one of the very few solid, honest, common sense patriots currently in our congress or any other branch of the federal government. I suppose we’ve gotten good results from either the republicans or democrats (non-capitalzed intentionally) for the past 50 years, so it makes no sense to consider Libertarians (capitalized intentionally) or any freedom-centrist, constitutionalist candidates. Get real tar & feathers.

And Tar and Feathers returned with a solid retort:

2009 November 30

tar and feathers permalink

Hey, I’m as real as the next schlub. The Libertarian party is not currently viable. While wacky fringe group parties like American Independent, and the Greens increase their ranks, the Libertarians lag behind both. It took me ten years as a LP member to realize their lack of political savvy, and inability to be a genuine political force.

And as I often say, two things can be simultaneously true. One can be a patriotic constitutionalist AND be nuts at the same time. (Present company excluded.)

Of course it’s very difficult for me to resist using the C-word when the Good Doctor comes up in discussion. It’s just too much fun watching his followers’ heads spin around. (I recently got an email from a reader who said that I wasn’t particularly good at ridicule. However he seemed mainly irritated that I had ridiculed Paul whom he admired…)

My views are pretty well known here…

But on this basic point Tar and Feathers is correct. At the national level third parties are ineffective. One needs to work within one of the two dominant parties (or both of them) in order to actually make things happen. Here’s what so many third party advocates don’t understand: within the GOP and the Democratic Party there are more than just the two parties. Each party is actually a coalition of differing ideological interest groups and constituencies. So if you want to be a libertarian you’re far better off just being part of the libertarian wing of the GOP than being part of the Libertarian Party — unless your interests are purely at a local level.

Dorothy of Oz is directed by Daniel St. Pierre (Everyone’s Hero).

Alpine Pictures in association with Box Office Productions III, LLC is currently producing the animated feature musical Dorothy of Oz based upon the best-selling children’s novel by one of America’s most beloved literary icons. The author Roger S. Baum is the great grandson of L. Frank Baum the author of the original The Wizard of Oz. The book Dorothy of Oz has sold millions of copies.

Dorothy of Oz follows in the footsteps of The Wizard of Oz, and is destined to become both a box office hit and an animated film classic.

There is trouble in Oz and Dorothy is needed! With Glinda’s help, she and Toto return to Oz. Joined by her old friends the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Lion (Jim Belushi) as well as exciting new characters, Dorothy sets out on a perilous journey to stop the crafty Jester (Martin Short) from using the power of the Wicked Witch of the West’s wand to turn the people of Oz into puppets. That seems to be the least of Dorothy’s problems as her travels lead her straight into a treacherous maze, a cave full of very hungry dragons and an evil spell that could destroy the Yellow Brick Road. Dorothy has the daunting knowledge that it is up to her to stop Jester’s terrible plan. Audiences will welcome the return of the old Oz favorites and will love meeting new friends like Tugg a gruff talking boat and Wiser an owl with an unlucky attraction to molasses.

Written in the whimsical style of L. Frank Baum, Dorothy of Oz”is sure to delight Oz fans old and new as they journey once again into the magical land of Oz.

Source: Collider

by Lyman Frank Baum

Dorothy is a young girl who lives on a Kansas farm with her Uncle Henry, Aunt Em, and little dog Toto. One day the farmhouse, with Dorothy inside, is caught up in a tornado and deposited in a field in the country of the Munchkins. The falling house kills the Wicked Witch of the East.

Download The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

PDF, EPUB, Mobipocket/Kindle

home.

The word means so many different things. Home is a sense of place; of familiarity and of belonging. I lived in the same town until I left for college. Nursery school, kindergarten, rec soccer, elementary school, ballet class, girl scouts, middle school, basketball, volleyball, piano lessons, confirmation, high school, marching band, young life, youth group; all lived within the same 7×3 mile town. Home is a place called Bay Village with families and Huntington beach and bay days and community prom pictures. I know this town. I know its streets and its culture and its secrets. But this town knows me. It shaped the first 18 years of my life and continues to affect me when I least expect it.

My parents have lived in the same house for the last 20 years. When I’m coming home, I’m returning to the past 20 years. A look around my bedroom reveals the child that once lived there and the woman who has returned. A doll in the closet, photos on the wall, a scribbled note passed in science class, dried corsages, college textbooks weave together to tell a still incomplete story of the girl who once danced and laughed and cried and lived within these four walls.

Stepping back into this place is a returning; a moving through all of the layers that have aligned to form my being. I feel a bit like Dorothy, leaving Oz and returning to Kansas. I leave behind the technicolor world of DC with its flashing lights and new adventures to return to the black-and-white heartland, known and home.

In my newly released book, Stormy Weather, several pivotal storms wreak havoc in the lives of the main characters, Rae, Luke, and Mac, both literally and figuratively.  Stormy Weather is a romance, so it will come as no surprise that it has a happy ending – the sunshine and joy after the rain, to quote the words of an old song, or if you prefer, the rainbow after the storm.

Anyone who saw “The Wizard of Oz” knows that “somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue.”  Had it not been for the tornado that hit Dorothy’s drab, Kansas world, she never would have traveled to the wonderful land of Oz, nor learned to appreciate her precious Auntie Em’s love, or that there’s “no place like home.”

Like everyone, my life has had many bittersweet moments. The very day my first book, Night and Day, was released, I had surgery to remove a recurrence of skin cancer and ended up with a 4″ scar on my neck that left my head cocked to one side for about three weeks. One of the proudest and most exciting moments of my life; and I looked and felt so terrible that I wasn’t able to celebrate or promote the book until some time later. On top of that, the recession had finally come to the Midwest, and I was tense and worried about the repercussions to my business and those of friends and family.

Two other times in my life come to mind as well… on my wedding day, almost 6 years ago, my back was out, and I was so stiff and sore that my friend had to lift my feet into the car to drive me to the church. Due to another medical condition, I was in excruciating pain during much of our dream vacation to Scotland 3 years ago. The term “grin and bear” it took on a whole new meaning.

These incidents are nothing compared to the heartbreak many of you have endured or are going though right now.

Yet, much as these temporary storms may have marred or impeded my enjoyment of some of the most precious and pleasurable days of my life, as always, clouds do dissipate, sunshine reappears, and joy is to be found on the other side of the rainbow. My husband, the pastor, is quick to add that a house built of the solid rock of Jesus Christ will withstand the worst of storms.

Is there a time in your life that you’ve experience joy in the midst of a storm? Sunshine after the rain? A rainbow so unexpected and lovely that you find yourself thinking the fray was almost worth it just to have experience that one blessed moment in time?

You’ll have to read Stormy Weather to experience the moment when Rae’s worst nightmare coincides with an event so profound that it will change her entire life.

I hope, as you read about what happens to Rae, that your faith will be restored – that you will be able to see through the wind and rain and sleet and snow that’s pommeling you to the blue skies on the other side of the rainbow, to experience the sunshine and joy awaiting you there.

Have you ever noticed the political echoes between the Wizard of Oz and Robespierre? Consider these similarities: 1) In the L. Frank Baum novel, the Wizard of Oz obliges all inhabitants of the Emerald City to wear green-tinted spectacles because, as the guard explains to Dorothy upon her arrival at the gates, “if you did not wear spectacles the brightness and glory of the Emerald City would blind you. … They are locked on, for Oz so ordered it when the City was first built” (117). 2) Robespierre himself always wore green-tinted glasses, according to his biographer Ruth Schurr (Fatal Purity, 12). 3) When he is unveiled at the end, Baum’s Wizard admits he is a humbug and reveals the tricks he has used to fool observers into believing in his power (ventriloquism, optical illusions, hot air balloon technology), his reclusive habits, and fear of being revealed. But his original rise to prominence, he insists, was something of an accident; as he notes, “I found myself in the midst of a strange people, who, seeing me come from the clouds, thought I was a great Wizard. Of course I let them think so, because they were afraid of me, and promised to do anything I wished them to” (187). The Wizard’s final words underline his goodness. In response to Dorothy’s exclamation, “I think you are a very bad man,” he replies: “Oh no, my dear; I’m really a very good man, but I’m a very bad Wizard, I must admit.” (189). 4) Robespierre’s speech to the Jacobins on November 21, 1793 reveals a similar mix of grandiloquence and humility. Defending his notion of a great Being who watches over the people, he describes himself as a “poor sort of Catholic,” but insists that his aim is true: “I have never cooled in my friendship for, or failed in my championship of, my fellow men. Indeed, I have only grown more wedded to the moral and political ideas that I have expressed … The French people pins its faith, not on its priests, nor on any superstition, or any ceremony, but on worship as such–that is to say, upon the conception of an incomprehensible power, which is at once a source of confidence to the virtuous and of terror to the criminal” (cited in Shurr, 194).
These echoes may be fortuitious; the landscape of 19th-century America abounded with tyrants and tricksters, to be sure. Nevertheless, it is intriguing to note the reverberations that echo between the sentiment and populism of the Wizard of Oz and the so-called Charlatan of the Terror.
Works cited (and sources of illustrations):
Ruth Schurr, Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution (NY: Henry Holt, 2006).
L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (repr. of 1900 edition; Ann Arbor, MI: Ann Arbor Media Group LLC, 2003).

Fiesa International Sand Sculpture Festival recently wrapped up on the beaches of Pera, Algarve in Portugal. Have a look at the amazing sculptures created! This year’s theme was Hollywood, so these were movie based.

Invite your family & friends to a party over the rainbow!
Be sure to check out the matching items!
http://www.and-everything-nice.biz/shop/birthday/children/theme/wizard-of-oz/cat_594.html

I’m on quite a delay from my last post, and I thought that it was apropos to write while watching one of my favorite movies, The Wizard of Oz. Strangely enough, this movie is one of the constants in my life. As a child, I remember watching it when a hurricane hit in Louisiana, when I saw my first snowfall (again in Louisiana), and as I’ve grown older, many lazy, rainy afternoons or evenings when I needed something comforting and familiar. No matter what I’m thinking about or preparing for, I can stop and watch Dorothy and her trio of friends face the unknown and scary, and smile at the simplicity and magic of the story.

As some of you might know, I recently traveled to Germany on vacation for a week. The trip had a dual purpose – to visit Mom while she was there on business, and to get myself the heck out of dodge for a while. I hadn’t been on an extended vacation in quite some time, and I also hadn’t been to a place other than Ohio, Syracuse, or Louisiana in several years either, so this was something I was looking forward to for months. The ultimate goal was to go there and not think about work, or my boyfriend, or the lions, tigers, and bears that the future holds. It’s unrealistic to believe that I would NEVER think about any of those things while I was away, but I do feel that I was able to step away from most of that while I was away, and now that I’ve returned, I have a bit of a new perspective on what lies ahead, but more importantly, on what is happening now in my life.

I didn’t come back with all of my questions answered, and all of my worries absolved, but I was able to sit back and really question why the idea of an uncertain future bothers me so much. Now, I’m not going to go to some lengthy explanation about every single factor in this, but I can say that my mind has been always planned, always prepared for, always on the next calendar week, month, year than my body physically is. But that is so exhausting. Not just to me, but for those who care about me, because geez, why be all stressed about what happens when you’re 26 when you’re barely 25?

I should read my previous posts more often. Because, it’s simple as the fact that I have my health, that I have a loving family, a job, a place to live. It’s as simple as the fact that I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do next, but I don’t have to know right this instant.

Every day, I might just have to remind myself that “If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t go further than my own backyard.”

Found this as one of the 3 songs I will do for karaoke soon.  I bought on ebay a used pair pair of tap shoes. It was really something, because I didn’t want to spend much money, now that I’ve quit both of my jobs.

So after I cleaned my house, (in 45 minutes, I read a book, use what I learned, and time myself once a week,) ….. so I looked at ebay.  And wouldn’t you know, in 8 minutes the auction for a pair of black tap shoes in size 8 1/2, my size, would expire.  So I won the auction. 

I  would like to do a tap dance on stage along with the stuffed Scarecrow I bought at Wal-Mart. 

Here is Dorothy and Scarecrow. I think the Jews did the lyrics on this or since the “manage, monopolize and control,” everything they changed the song.  It mentions “Abraham Lincoln,” and Black Scarecrows, and I think they have been stuffing Civil Rights down our throats for 400 years.

It talks about the Scarecrow needing a “brain,” our White people are really going to have to leave the brain behind that contains all this Jewish garbage, and begin anew.

I am so careful about what I take in my mind and/or brain.  When people around me have such nonsensical ideas, I don’t want to be around them. I once told my son when he made a ridiculous comment to me, “I don’t want to listen to that. I don’t want you putting “weeds” into the lovely garden of my mind.”  And I didn’t argue, I just walk away. 

Having suffered from depression before, our White minds must be guarded from Mental Illness, for I believe the Jews cause the mental problems, and then charge us $300.00 an hour for a visit with a Jewish psychiatrist, like the one that raped me and threanted me for life in an insane asylum if I tell anyone.

So here are to the Wizards of the Ku Klux Klan.  May we somehow unite, and not need the $$$ or the talents of the Jews.  The White sands of our hourglass are running out.