There's No Place Like Home

Sullivan has recently discovered The Wizard of Oz. We had been worried that maybe it would be too scary for him, but I swear, kids these days are so jaded that the things that totally freaked us out as kids (I remember being SO horrified when the witch's face gets closer and closer, in the crystal ball!!) is pure folly to them now. Sad, but true. He just started watching it yesterday and only got through a bit of it before bed time. This morning he wanted to watch the rest, so we hunkered down in our jammies and started it from the beginning together. We own the DVD, but I had not watched it for years. I had forgotten just how truly wonderful that movie is. The lyrics to the songs, and the songs themselves are amazing. The story is so wonderfully simple, I absolutely love the message that the 4 travelers, even Dorothy herself, had what they were looking for all along. And, after all these years, I still cry at the end, when Dorothy is tearfully saying her goodbyes. What was so incredibly dear, was at that point Sullivan looked at me and noticed me crying. I noticed even his eyes were misting up a bit and he said to me, "My throat is sad, but not my face..." What an observation, and can you believe the capacity of emotion that my little 4 year has?? Sigh.

I have to say, I was a little emotional throughout the whole movie. Watching it really brought back the memories of being a child, watching it in the basement of my Iowa City home. Of course at that point, you only saw a movie in the theater, or once a year as a special on T.V. I remember at one point The Wizard of Oz was showing during a tornado watch that was actually going on, it was really bizarre! I sat there this morning with Sullivan, feeling a bit small, realizing just how wonderfully strange it was to be watching this movie with my youngest child. How it made me think of my childhood, which surprisingly enough considering the disfunction that was going on, was such a happy go-lucky time. It forced me to look at the inevitablity that we as humans push back to the deepest of our subconscious as it tries to rear it's ugly head, that there is no going back. And you know, there really is no place like home.