Yesterday, my grandkids — Kiera (12) and Drew (almost 10) stayed out in the snow and off their screens for a good hour and a half, with friends Caden (five years old today) and Maya (12), making snow forts in order to set up the field for a snow ball fight with rules (can’t cross a certain line, etc.).
The older ones, the girls, got the better location, a bush tailor-made for a fort inside it. But as Drew pointed out, they had to crawl out of the fort to throw a snowball . . .
The boys built more of a defensive wall, with sticks on top (which the girls breached).
Next, the fight itself. Here, Drew nails Kiera.
OOPS! Somebody hit Caden in the face. Here’s Uncle Colin, comforting him. Guess it’s time to quit.
It’s now time for me to take Kiera out for our special lunch, then meet Drew and Mom Sue for a local theatrical production of the Wizard of Oz, always one of my favorites, ever since the time when I realized that my Dad, the boogey-man in my life, was merely the Wizard of Oz. That he had created the illusion of “power” and I had bought into it. (A further realization, that I had “created” him to hold that illusion for me, so that I could blame him for it, came later.)
At any rate, it made me wonder about occult and political interpretations of the story, because there always are lots of ways that humans imagine the meaning of any story, especially those that read like an odyssey. The Hero’s Journey does begin with a single step. And each step taken can lead to literally an infinite number of directions depending on where exactly the next step is placed. Between any two points (of view) there is always a space. And if you look at any “point” close enough, it turns into space. There is no end to it, always this intense creativity, this playful interaction within a universe that loves loves loves.
Here’s an interpretation that looks at the author of the Wizard of Oz, Frank Baum, and his associations with the Theosophical Society, and draws conclusions about the story he wrote as “an allegorical tale about the path to illumination.”
The Occult Roots of the Wizard of Oz
Political interpretations, according to wikipedia, focus on Frank Baum’s associations with the Populist movement, especially “his interest in the money question of gold and silver.” For example, this:
3 thoughts on “Snow Fort, Fight and Real(?) Meaning of Wizard of Oz”
I attended a Jean Houston weekend in Indianapolis in 1984, where 600 people got treated to a group journey through Oz, discovering our inner heroes (and Witches, and fake Wizards). Here’s her talk on it this year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xar37seW0qA She has a book out on it, too, “The Wizard of Us.”
G’day Ann, I’m thinking perhaps your link contained within the heading “The Occult Roots of the Wizard of Oz” was meant to point here instead: http://vigilantcitizen.com/moviesandtv/the-occult-roots-of-the-wizard-of-oz/
Thanks Will. I fixed it.
Ann