Did you read the Oz books when you were a kid? I did. My big sister had all of them and read them to me. I loved them so much I re-read them more than once.
Hearing Evan Schwartz reveal the spiritual underpinnings of the story, I wonder if these deep truths resonated with us even as children. Just as likely, it was the sheer unique-ness of the characters that drew us in. Who ever heard of a tin man who wanted a heart? On the other hand, who hasn’t looked at a scarecrow and wondered what he might say, if he had a brain?
As an adult, the fascinating thing to me is how much our American culture has been influenced by eastern philosophy, and how early those influences showed up. I once read a whole encyclopedia set on religions in America, and was amazed at how many Christian innovators had studied Eastern Philosophy and Theosophy. Having studied something doesn’t necessarily mean having adopted any new beliefs, but even Charles Wesley studied theosophy before he founded the Methodist church. It only makes sense that great religious thinkers would be interested in every school of thought available at the time. One wonders how the influences mixed together, and if we are really just one big “melting pot”.
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