If I Only Had A Heart

Dear Rachel,

I keep thinking about your favorite movie, The Wizard of Oz. You were such an Oz freak. You had Oz memorabilia all over the place: random piles of Oz figurines, plates, and key chains; posters old and new depicting Dorothy and Toto and their friends; Wizard of Oz games and wallets and coffee mugs. You had the books—original editions and countless reissues—and you even had (and had pretty much memorized) a copy of the script. We always knew what to get you for Christmas: more Oz stuff.

This Christmas there’s no Oz stuff in the house.

Oddly, after all these years, I finally know my favorite line from the movie—or at least the line that means the most to me: When Dorothy and Toto discover that they’re leaving—indeed, that they could have left at any time—Dorothy turns to her new friends and her eyes fill up with tears as she suddenly realizes that when she leaves Oz she’ll lose those she has come to love so very much. “Goodbye, Tin Man,” she says. “Oh, don't cry. You'll rust so dreadfully! Here—here's your oil-can. Goodbye.”

In response, the Tin Man says, “Now I know I've got a heart—'cause it's breaking.”

And now I know that I, too, truly have a heart, and I know it for exactly for the same reason.

Love,

Dad