The Wizard, the Curtain & Why You Should Go Have an Adventure

Let's get the points of this The Wizard of Oz talk out right away so you can focus on the journey ahead: No one knows everything; there is always a man behind the curtain pretending he does; you already have what you need; no one is coming to save you; find some good friends and have an adventure. Now, what follows is a total spoiler for those who didn't see the movie. It is one of the greatest movie classics in history, so please watch it. Now to the story.

Getting to Oz

Dorothy is a Kansas sweetheart with a restless imagination, stuck in an isolated, far-flung piece of prairie. She shares a small, single-room farmhouse with her aunt and uncle on a treeless, bleak horizon and has only her little dog to keep her company. An epitome of a young soul craving experiences and adventure, anywhere, somewhere over the rainbow, our girl here gets swooped up and tornadoed away from her home, only to be kerplunked right in the middle of the weird Land of Oz, strange enough to give Alice's Wonderland a run for its money.

Meeting the Posse

Oz is not your regular place, oh no! Very different from the monochromatic prairies of Kansas, it is a colorful land filled with magic, witches, wizards, winding roads, munchkins, and talking animals. After the initial awe sprinkled with some fear of the unknown, Dorothy finds a few new companions along the way, all of whom feel incomplete. They are searching for something, yearning for more, just as she is in her simple farm life. The lion needs courage, Tinman a heart, and the Scarecrow a brain and Dorothy needs to find her way back home (actually, she needs an adventure because we return from adventures to old places (yes, even to gloomy prairies) and see them with new eyes).
 

The Dissillusion 

So, the Good Witch of the North acts sort of like a good mother figure, letting a child into the world to learn by searching and exploring. She sends Dorothy and the gang to find the Grand Wizard of Oz, and they merrily go down the Yellow Brick Road that will lead to Emerald City, hoping the wizard will grant their respective wishes. They find the wizard indeed, and after some visual flexing of power, he uses the gang for his own purpose - to defeat the Wicked Witch of the West. Once Dotty accidentally beats her, they return and discover that there was never any wizard. Just an ordinary little man, hidden from sight, and claiming profusely with his wizard avatar to "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain." The far less impressive and dramatic reality behind a cheap smoke-and-mirrors laser show is that no one can save you. You save yourself with the adventures you have and the company you keep.

Someone Who Knows Better 

<We'd all, at times, like to believe that all will be magically solved. Even as adults, we yearn for an entity that can simply give us what we want, someone who knows better and who has the solutions. This was the case when we were kids. We encountered something so big, scary, and confusing that we ran to our parents, cried, hid, and had the problem solved by someone else. To the young and still helpless to navigate life, parents and caregivers are the wizards, an omniscient gateway to solutions. They will know the answer to things that befuddle us, protect us from infinite scary unknowns, and grant wishes we have no means of fulfilling by ourselves (yet). But there is this excellent rule in child rearing and caring for older people: Don't do anything for someone they can do themselves. It is demeaning, it is not a favor, and you're teaching helplessness to someone who is not helpless.

Time passes relentlessly, and sooner or later, adulthood will catch up with the lucky ones. The wide-eyed childhood wonder is a great thing to keep as you grow up, but naivety and expecting to be given things and have problems solved by others becomes a very unattractive vibe as a fully grown-up person stares at you in the mirror. Still, sometimes we all get stuck in seeking that great wizard, an all-knowing magician to snap their fingers, say the word, or wave a wand over us. We, mostly unconsciously or by conveniently turning a blind eye, get stuck in expecting things to come from the outside before we're ready to put in the work. We sort of expect that solutions, love, success, respect, opportunity, or answers are to be received rather than found or earned. We're entitled and would like these bestowed just for existing, no strings attached.

Even the Swiss founder of analytical psychology, Carl Gustav Jung, spoke of the archetype called a Good Father. This is the collective idea we carry as humans about the one who knows all the answers, provides, and watches over us. But all positives have a negative and easily degenerate if they try to negate the negative. The good father provides and protects, expecting the beneficiaries of all his goodness only to stay compliant and do as they're told. Overprotecting and over-providing underscore helpless complacency, arrest growth, and basically depict the condition of accepting something as all-knowing as a somewhat tyrannical thing that takes away your personal power, responsibility, and happiness.

Growing Up

Growing up means peaking backstage and finding out that there is no wizard. There are a lot of illusions out there operated by someone behind the curtain pulling levers and trying to figure things out, just as you are. It's a magic trick, a semblance of power dependent on the point of view of the audience and their willingness to suspend disbelief. The world is full of curtains and people twiddling the buttons behind these to present a sort of alternate reality. We all do it to an extent because we live in social groups and play various roles in our lives. It's okay to be sort of a wizard to your toddler, to provide and protect, but it's also okay to open the curtain and talk about the reality of things.

When the curtain drops, it's frightening because if there is no one else to do it magically from the outside, you're responsible for your own life. It is also liberating and allows you to explore with no one to answer to. You also already have the seeds of what you want inside. The lion, Tinman, and Scarecrow didn't need to be given courage, a heart, and a brain; they just needed the adventure and a goal challenging enough so that these traits get the opportunity to stand front and center. They needed a chance to use their brain or heart and face something dangerous enough to need to find the courage to do it anyway.

Pay Attention & Figure It Out

Do pay attention to the magician and his diversion of attention. Know he's there, but take your quest anyway, relying on what you know and trusting that you'll figure out or find what you don't know or have along the way. You may just find a mousy little man peaking from behind the curtain, just as scared, confused, and clueless as you are. You may grow so strong that you can even help him squint into the light and stop lying.

For the slumbering Dorothy, the Yellow Brick Road and Emerald City may have been just a sleepy illusion, but she still realized she already had what she needed and that there was no place like home. Winning, losing, defeating the witches, or getting hexed, at least you will have taken the journey, gotten some new friends and experiences along the way, and discovered what you're made of, and that's worth a little discomfort of not knowing exactly where the road ends. You can try, seek, find, be wrong, change your mind, retry, and click click click away your kick-ass red shoes to get you back home when needed, safe and sound, and resting up for a new adventure.

Do pay attention to that man behind the curtain and create your own magic.