Where does it go?
There’s a picture making the rounds on Facebook of Dorothy at the start of the Yellow Brick Road. It’s a screencap, of course, from the classic film, The Wizard of Oz.
If you remember the movie, you will recall that the yellow brick road starts in a spiral. (If you don’t remember the movie, you better watch it again!) The negative space—the part that’s not yellow—is red.
Hence the caption on this screencap that says: Where does the red brick road go?
My first reaction was laughter. Not rolling on the floor hysterics, but at least one “ha!” The essence of humor, it has been said, is thwarted expectations, surprise, incongruities.
This caption is surprising because it never occurred to me to ask that question. So, what I’m wondering today is not where the red brick road goes—although that is an excellent question and might merit another blockbuster musical à la Wicked.
What I am wondering is why some people’s brains work in such a way as to come up with that question and mine does not.
It’s a dumb little internet meme. And yet. . .
Isn’t it what creativity is all about? Putting things together in new and interesting ways? Taking a leap? Asking the questions?
I’m supposed to be a creative person. I’ve been paid for creativity in the past. I hope to be paid for creativity in the future.
But this is not how my mind works.
And I wonder about that.
On a practical level, I understand that, in this instance, my attention in the movie is directed so thoroughly as those ruby slippers step along to the accompanying chant of “Follow the yellow brick road! Follow the yellow brick road! Follow the, follow the, follow the, follow the, follow the yellow brick road!” that the red brick right next to it is completely overlooked. It doesn’t register. I don’t think about it.
This little Facebook funny is a lesson to me.
I better start wondering about things more often than on Wednesdays.
“What if?” and “Why?” and “Why not?” are indispensable tools for artists—and…oh, I don’t know…everybody, don’t you think?
Why not?
