Tin Men

"Oz didn't give nothing to the tin man, that he didn't, didn't already have." -Dewey Bunnell


The Wizard of Oz was on the other night and it triggered memories for my husband.
David played the Cowardly Lion in his sixth grade production of the Wizard of Oz. He was a precocious boy, the kind of kid that C.S. Lewis was, the kind that people wanted to "wipe that look off his face". Giving David that part allowed him to throw his energy into a wildly popular character and perform with raucous abandon. Our neighbor, Ann, was cast as the Scarecrow and a boy who I never met was the Tin Man.

The Tin Man boy had some problems and was teased by some of his classmates. I'm sure his life had happy moments along with the sad, as we all do, but at some point later on in his adult life he committed suicide.

I wonder how many Tin Men out there need to know that they are loved for who they are. I pray- Jesus make it real. Make love real.

We're all tin men.