There's no place like home, there's no place like home...

“There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home!”  I would hope that most people recognize what movie that line comes from.  If not, my dad would say, “Are you an American?” The Wizard of Oz, a classic story of, in my opinion, realizing that what we have is just enough and that the people around us who love us are really all that we need.  It’s a classic movie that depicts Dorothy’s struggle with “getting home” after being upset about her current life.  After quite a few trials, with help along the way, the ‘Wizard of Oz’ gives her a pair of ruby red slippers that she is to wear and say, “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home!”  Interestingly enough, these famous “ruby red slippers” have been the longing of many people.  What do these slippers really mean? 

Salman Rushdie, a very well-known satirist, writes a story about these slippers called, At the Auction of the Ruby Red Slippers. This is a very interesting story because it depicts the desire for humans to have things in life but in a very blatant and almost disturbing way.  The story takes place in an auction room, that has been home to many strange things that have been for sale: “In the Grand Saleroom, in recent years, we have witnessed the auction of the Taj Mahal, the Statue of Liberty, the Alps, the Sphiz…the sale of wives and purchase of husbands” (p 98).  “Everything is for sale”..(p98).  It is interesting that in this one place, where so many people are waiting for the auction of Ruby Slippers, “things” that are priceless have been “sold.”  Not only are these things being auctioned, but there are numerous people waiting to buy these shoes.  “Movie stars are here, among the bidders” (p 88).  “Wizards, Lions, Scarecrows” (p 89).  “Exiles, displaced persons of all sorts, even homeless tramps” (p 90). “Political refugees are at the auction: conspirators, disposed monarchs, defeated factions, poets, bandit chieftains” (p 91).  All of these people and more showed up to bid on the Ruby Red Slippers.

Why? They seem to be mass consumers who want to have the latest and greatest “thing” out there and will do anything to get it.  “We revere the ruby slippers because we believe they can make us invulnerable to witches because of their powers of reverse metamorphosis, their affirmation of a lost state of normalcy in which we have almost ceased to believe and to which the sippers promise we can return..” (p 92).  These slippers seem to have magical powers that will bring them “home.”  A joy that these crazy people seem to think can be bought and they will pay for. 

This is a major slap in the face to our society!  I think that we really have become such horrible consumers that we think that we can truly buy happiness!  It’s horrible!  Our world has turned into the Grand Saleroom!  People are convinced that we the more you have the happier you’ll be.  Annie Leonard, a well-known environmental and sustainability expert, did a short video on how are world has become so consumer and product driven it was sickening.  The effects our habits have made on our planet are enormous.  If only people would realize what their spending habits do to our world, maybe we wouldn’t be ruining it as quickly.  The narrator of the story actually comes to the realization that buying these slippers will not satisfy anything of value, so “it is that I drop out of the biding, go home, and fall asleep” (p 102).  Now, if only our world would choose to go home and fall asleep instead of keep bidding…..