This is the backstory to this article. The phrase, the yellow brick road, originated in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which was written by L. Frank Baum in 1900. In a recent essay, I wrote about Alexander Melentyevich Volkov, a Russian writer in the 20^th century who essentially plagiarized Baum’s classic all but 15 pages.

Baum’s story is about Dorothy, who traveled to the Emerald City. The Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion joined her journey on the yellow brick road to the Emerald City, hoping to meet the Wizard of Oz.

The yellow brick road

Therefore, the yellow road was an artistic metaphor for striving to reach a goal at the end of the road.

Elton John made the popular Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in 1973.

Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

The storyline of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is the opposite of that of Dorothy going to the Emerald City. Dorothy saw hope and realized her dreams. Elton John sings about success and leaving the Emerald City.

That is the backstory. This essay combines Dorothy’s quest and Elton’s attempt to find something else. This is the second verse of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

Elton John lived a fast and luxurious life, and he bids farewell. My yellow brick road has to do with my love for the arts. My yellow brick road isn’t an eight-lane Interstate. It is merely a dozen foot long that cuts through my flowerbed to the lake. Ginger and I sit at the end of our not-so-yellow brick road and talk.

When Ti Ti asked me about my drive and love for the arts, I got the idea of fixing my not-so-yellow brick road. Now, I’m neither a Michelangelo nor a van Gogh. Nonetheless, I created a hooked rug when I took The Arts at Muskingum College. It was a requirement during the second semester of my junior year. I still have the rug, which is on display in my garage for all to see.

During my senior year, I did two sculptures. My first was Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a 20^th-century Jesuit theologian who had many theological issues with the Vatican and let them know about his theological disagreements. Teilhard’s bust still graces my bedroom. The second sculpture was of Lorenzo de' Medici. He was in charge of the Florentine Republic during the Italian Renaissance. He also was like me; he loved the arts. This is a famous sculpture done by an Italian. I can’t find my version of it. My Lorenzo lurks in some cluttered closet in my home.

I haven’t tried an architectural attempt for six decades. I water-blasted the stepping stones and painted them. Then, I rearranged them, poured dry concrete between them, sprayed a little water over the concrete between the stepping stones, and scattered small river rocks over the wet concrete.

I waited a couple of hours before finishing the task. The last step of my architectural pathway was to add larger river rocks to the pathway.

Then, I mixed the larger river rocks in a bucket containing clear glue and spread that mixture over some smaller river rocks. The clear glue turned blue while I mixed the larger river rocks with the glue. During the drying process, the light blue color disappears.

All that is necessary is to put the mulch next to my yellow brick road and to re-stain the chairs.

However, this artistic project is a metaphor for how I view life on my journey down the yellow brick road. Pete Seeger wrote and sang Quite Early in the Morning. It was his wake-up call to Americans and the rest of the world. We are heading in the wrong direction. This video is of Donald the Dumb’s brain, Elon Musk. Musk wants to chainsaw all the waste and corruption out of our country.

And Musk is an adult?