So Was She Dreaming or Not?

I cannot remember NOT being completely awestruck and fascinated by Judy Garland. Though in my recent, mature years I have not willingly owned up to this fact, the influence she has had over my entire life is undeniable.

I'm writing about this because for some strange reason I woke up this morning thinking about the Wizard of Oz. Especially Frank Morgan. And I had this horrifying thought. Maybe it was all just a dream. I've never fully considered this possibility, probably because I believe in faeries and most other unseen and unbelievable things. Which leads to the Oz Catch-22: have I always believed in faeries and most other unseen and unbelievable things, or did the Wizard of Oz's influence over my young mind give me a high propensity for crack smoking?

I think it's just that I wanted to be Judy Garland and skip down the yellow brick road, looking beautiful and sad, singing gloriously longing and soulful songs on the seat of an old tractor, holding my beloved terrier's rapt attention, and meeting new, helpful friends who are as unusual, unique, and over-the-top as possible. I now know I identified mostly with Judy's deep, hidden pain and her desire in her personal life to escape to a more acceptable non-reality. I still want to travel to Oz and hang out with a good witch who gives me magic shoes and travels in a bubble. I even want to sleep in the poppies for a while...though probably much, much longer than Judy and her crew did.

Ultimately, I simply cannot subscribe to the dream theory because that would mean the Cowardly Lion, Tin Man and Scarecrow are really just farm hands. And that is just unacceptable.

Parenthetical:
Of course nothing I'm discussing has anything to do with some of the more sophisticated layering of symbolism in this story, which is quite interesting and could be titled, "Sex, Drugs, and the Issues and Figures in American Politics at the End of the 19th Century." (My relationship with this movie is probably more aligned with the crowd who watch it while listening to the Dark Side of the Moon and smoking copious amounts of weed.)