| Sears and Oz Page 2 He pulled the vehicle into the bay and then sat and waited hesitantly, not knowing if he should wait for someone to come over or get out of the car and talk to one of the men in grease-splattered shirts who seemed to be ignoring us. Eventually my dad got out of the car and spoke to someone who was walking by and the mechanic raised the hood and peered inside. Soon he had a machine which tested the strength of the battery and he said it was weak, wrote a couple words on a form and sent us back out front, where the two people who had been helped while we were gone were replaced by two new customers and so we were still behind six other sin the line. I looked up at the counter and watched the two guys there. One was short, about 55, with a big gut, and he talked with a southern drawl, speaking arrogantly to a woman who wore a housedress and slippers. The other guy was maybe ten years younger and he wore a plaid short-sleeve shirt and glasses. He repeated, �yes sir�.yes sir,� to an elderly man. My dad and I waited. �Y�know, this place is ridiculous,� I said after a while. I was starting to get restless, shifting my feet repeatedly. �Yeah,� my dad said. �Well, Luther told me to get a DieHard. He said he could get me a battery for half the price, but that it would only last half as long as a DieHard. He did say he�d put it in if there was a wait, but all we need to do is get up to that counter.� Gradually customers made it to the counter, but once there it seemed like a challenge to relay what needed to be done to the men working there. �This is what�s called a flawed business model. Sears is part of the old economy. They haven�t moved into the technology age.� I looked up and down the line and then at my dad. �The only people who come here are older people who grew up shopping at Sears and trusting the name, but the heyday of this place is long gone. When these people, your generation, are all gone, this company will fold, just like what happened to all those traditional lumber stores when Home Depot came along.� �Maybe you�re right, but I still need a battery for my car. And I don�t see a Battery Depot anywhere �round here.� We laughed. Another person went up to the counter. There were now two others in front of us. �So,� my dad said, turning to me. �A �flawed business model,� aye? Maybe you did learn something at college.� He was joking and trying to be relaxed with me. �Well, actually I saw that on TV the other day. One of those millionaires just out of college was talking about the economy and stuff.� �Oh,� he said, seeming disappointed that television and not college was contributing to my thinking. �But I�ll tell you what I did learn at school.� He looked at me with his eyebrows lifting up as if expecting some revelation. �The Wizard of Oz is really an atheist manifesto.� Now my dad�s eyebrows plunged down and his eyes squinted. �What?� �Yeah,� I said. �We talked about that one day second semester in the philosophy class I took.� �You discussed The Wizard of Oz in a philosophy class.� �Yup.� He shook his head. �Think about it,� I said. �Dorothy and her friends are tryin� to get to Emerald City, right? That�s like Heaven. And it�s ruled by this wizard�this guy who appears with huge flames and a booming voice�so he�s kinda like God.� The woman with a young son at the head of the line walked up to the counter and now there was just one guy in front of us. �And so,� I continued, �the wizard tells Dorothy that she had to bring back the broom of the wicked witch, before her wish is granted. That could be interpreted as sayin� she has to kill the devil, or at least shun evil and live a good life. So Dorothy does this�but when she goes back to the wizard what does she find out? That there really is no wizard, right? That it was just a creation of some guy behind a curtain. And that all the time she herself had the power to grant her wish.� �And that means that there is no god?� �Well, yeah. There�s no god, just some people manipulatin� other people into thinkin� there is. And each of us has the power to control our own lives or to change the world ourselves, like Dorothy.� �That seems pretty far-fetched to me, Billy.� �There�s more to it, but that�s kinda it in a nutshell.� He shook his head again. �I�m payin� for you to study The Wizard of Oz at college?� He looked at me, but I could see that his question wasn�t totally confrontational. It was meant to be somewhat humorous. And so when I replied, �Among other things,� we both laughed. �You have to admit that it is possible to interpret it that way.� �Yeah�to a bunch of guys who have just emptied a keg, maybe.� I looked up at the counter. The guy with the gut was convincing the woman with the child that she needed more expensive tires. �This place is ridiculous,� I said. �I�m telling you, in twenty-five years they will be totally out of business.� Just then the man at the salesperson with the glasses said, �Can I help you?� and my dad and I walked up to the counter. |