Seventy years since Hope, Love, Courage and Intelligence traveled a road together.  Sounds almost like a sermon of biblical proportions, with or without dogs, cats or Ghostbusters.  However, to bring it into real terms,this as been a week when the “Breaking News” story was,“Padded Swim Suit Top for 7 Year Olds?”  Don’t get me wrong here; concern for children is very close to my heart.  But if a lead news story is this trivial, I am certain both Robert Frost and M.Scott Peck are turning in their respective graves of wisdom.

How can we as a society raise above what we have become if all that matters are ruby slippers?  I remember the imagery in my head of that untaken road which made all the difference, before becoming a teenage member of this life. There were no digitally enhanced 3-D effects then, you needed to depend upon your experiences in life, heart and soul to bring the literary landscape to the forefront.
It was only through that self discovery that decisions were made or lived by and you didn’t look back or go to Rehab.

Many have looked through the glass of Baum and assumed there were drugs involved like that of Carroll’s Alice.It is unthinkable, that imagination and inspiration could have acted alone in painting the travels of the mind.

It just wouldn’t make headlines. Basically this world now looks to Depp and not Deep when thinking past a rabbit hole.

The road that needs to be taken is one which detours from the self indulgent fantasy life of too pretty, too rich and too famous, that settles and forks into plain dirt and warms bare feet, leaving a mark.  Peck was brilliant in knowing until we value ourselves  and our time we won’t do anything with it, but how can we value our own time when we are constantly in Rehab,  doing GTL or in a court case on 24 hour cable access?

To concentrate on our own life can be painful and certainly not one with red sequins.  But it is the first step on a road back to Hope, Love, Courage  and Intelligence.

It is also a baseline for cost free self analysis, which reminds us:  There is no place like home.  A true parable, not of brick and mortar but of the soul. Because if it isn’t there you never had it to begin with and no shallow headline can put it there.