Oh, the Places You'll Go!

Not long ago, I was getting my daughter ready for bed, and she asked me to read her a book. I went to her bookcase, and pulled the first Dr. Seuss book I saw. It just happened to be Oh, the Places You'll Go!, and as I began to read, I realized that this book is much more than a fun tongue-twister. The message it delivers is so important that it seems wasteful to have it hidden in a children's book. For this reason, I have decided to discuss it on my blog -one of the most powerful and influential sites on the entire world-wide web.

Almost immediately, Dr. Seuss hits us with a realization that many of us struggle to deny, but ultimately have to accept: "You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy [or gal] who'll decide where to go." Now, we are not really on our own; most of us have family, friends, teachers, or others who are available to give us support when we need it, but what he is trying to say is that we are the ones who, in the end, are responsible for our direction. All of the outside influences in the world cannot relieve us of our responsibility for which path we take. This premise is the base for Seuss' entire book.

The story follows our unnamed hero as he wanders through Seuss' world of fancifully named creatures and mysterious places. One place that causes some real issues is "The Waiting Place." We are warned to avoid getting caught in this place, where everyone is just sitting around waiting for something to happen. Oh, how many of us find ourselves guilty of this in our lives? We tell ourselves that things will really start to happen when this thing or that thing comes true, and we just wait. Living is an activity that must be done, not waited for. The sooner we realize that things don't happen to us, we happen to them, the sooner we begin to see ourselves achieving goals instead of waiting on them.

The greatest thing about the book, though, is that the lesson does not end with just one insight, or even two. The entire text is a handbook on life, but maybe more directly, the teenage years. Last Saturday, our fine football team made the trip to Quincy for the first ever appearance of the Paris Tigers in the state playoffs. All year, we have seen this team show how special they are by beating teams like Charleston and making a run at Effingham, only to see them defeated by a bunch of no-good cheaters who shouldn't even be allowed to play in the same playoff schedule with us because they are a bunch of cheating cheaters... but I digress. The important thing to remember is that while they may not have been the best team on the field last weekend, they were the best football team this town has had the opportunity to get behind, and that, in itself, is special.

And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all. Fame! You'll be famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV. Except when they don't. Because, sometimes, they won't.

Dr. Seuss reminds us that even during times when it seems like we can't lose, eventually we will, and realizing that it is not the end of the road, not even a speed bump, is what makes us special. We can pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and tackle the next challenge wiser for our experiences.

I could go on for pages about the lessons in this book and how they apply to high school students, but I will not. Instead, let me just say that, "be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea", pick a Dr. Seuss book and look for the meaning beyond the madness.