The Yellow Brick Road

by Deannalynn Arzola

What exactly is the yellow brick road?
Wikipedia (dictionary to the entertainment inclined) calls it an element (writer speak for character, sans the dialogue) in the novel, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", written by L Frank Baum in 1900. The road, Wiki states,functions as a guideline
 for Dorothy. Ah, yes, I concur, as I believe immensely in the path. Nevertheless, we all know the outline; gal from Kansas dreams of a better life. Finding her people along the way, she finds that home is where the heart is, and that from her friendships, she also finds that which she needs most. To me the metaphor is so obvious that it's not really a metaphor at all. Upon her journey, Dorothy comes to a fork in the road, where she hooks up with Scarecrow, who "only" needs a brain. They decide together which way to go, and while they may encounter the Wicked Witch, they're still on the path to the Emerald City. Finding what you need in each other and working together as a team seemingly garners the best rewards.
I wonder if Robert Frost thought of Dorothy and Scarecrow when he sat down to pen "The Road Not Taken" sixteen years later. The narrator in "Road" is referring to a memory, not the future. He states that he has traveled both roads in his life, both being "worn really about the same", and now looking back at both roads diverging in a yellow road, he compares the choices of his life and the difference those choices made. Many an editor has pondered the question of Frost's last stance, in which he sighs while remembering. Well, any good writer knows that the poet writes from a heart that also wishes to inspire his reader to come to his own conclusion/interpretation/perception. I am not an editor. In regards to Frost, I am a reader, and my interpretation is this: the narrator, while looking back on his life sighs in the remembrance that he most often walked the road less traveled by most, the one in which his struggles were more difficult, but his rewards were exponential. For me, the writer, the human, the most satisfying journey is the one in which I have needed a hypothetical weed-whacker. You know, the kind of path you have to beat back the tangled snarl of your past so as to make the path a little easier for the next guy. Altruism at it's best...(as when it's mutually beneficial). The kind of path in which the friends you make along the way don't pick you up and carry you on their shoulders. They, instead, make you observe your shadows and then hand you a scythe and join you on this soul-lifting, clutter clearing journey. The sigh in the end I interpret as the narrator exhaling upon his reflection. I still believe, every time I read my second favorite poem of all time, that the narrator is relieved having chosen the lesser traveled road, as do I also believe my yellow brick road is allot like Dorothy's...it's been a tougher one, but I've walked it, and those I meet along this road in particular truly have made all the difference.

I was recently listening to Sir Elton's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", and in his song, I get the feeling his protagonist wants to give up fame and fortune and head on back to the farm. I remember reading an interview in which Sir Elton was asked, I can only imagine, for like, the zillionth time, if he meant to walk away from fame, and his having looked back at both roads, his response was, "Thank God, I can say, quite categorically, that I am home." I'm sure the road paved with gold and fame was the harder road, and a more rewarding one, to say the least.
There seems to be this ongoing debate in regards to journey versus destination. I think it's actually allot of both. For many years I searched for beaten paths and friends who would carry me. I was searching for Oz in an airplane. I felt entitled. Deserved. I am only realizing now that on the journey, you will have to, inevitably beat down the thorny debris planted in your past, you will need friends who make you continue on, and mirror you so that you can face your demons and slay them. You will also need said friends to help you heal your wounds. You will do the same for them and that is the point. It takes two people to beat a path for each other. And you will need that help because they will enlighten you to that fact that the real wizard sitting comfortably behind the velvet curtain is you and you will need that knowledge to get each other home.
As a good witch, I wish I could say, "Tap your heels together three times...", and wave my magic wand but even if I could, I wouldn't, 'cause flying monkeys are just a necessary evil and no bella fioreture rosa mai de semi contaminato e suolo incolto...