Of Dogs and Dogma

“Not in Kansas anymore” is a borrowed line from The Wizard of Oz. These famous words were spoken by Dorothy to her little “dogma,” I mean dog, Toto, when she realized that she had entered the world of enchantment, a land called Oz.

With her trusty friend Toto by her side Dorothy traveled the magical land of Oz, endured trials and hardships, even slayed the Wicked Witch of the West when she accidentally baptized her with water. Toto, was the one thing, the one relationship Dorothy loved most, one she would even sacrifice not getting back home for, but (Warning, spoiler ahead) Dorothy makes it home from Oz and wakes from the beautiful, technicolor nightmare in Kansas with her little dog Toto by her side and declares, “There’s no place like home.”

Moviegoers may have felt disappointed that Dorothy ended up back in her drab little black and white reality instead of living forever in the merry ol’, blessed-be land of Oz with her new found friends. They may have been happier if she had climbed into the beautiful balloon and sailed up, up and away into the air into perhaps another universe next door with her personal wizard who had told her that he knew he way back home when he really didn’t know much of anything at all.

But instead, Dorothy held on to her relationship with her little dog Toto, even jumped out of the balloon to retrieve him because she loved him and she wanted to go home to Kansas. It was her real home. Brave little Dorothy and he little dog Toto, through thick and thin she persisted, refusing to remain captive to anything that would keep her from what she loved the most, and knew to be true all along.