Ed Gulley came over Saturday and he helped us move the Tin Man across the yard a bit, so he is visible from the road, but also very close to the house. I like to see him when I come out in the morning. I bought the Tin Man from Ed Gulley for $50 a month and some meals (many meals) and I see that he casts a long shadow.

Ed likes my idea to replace his metal eyes with two marbles or glass balls, I think it would give him an especially interesting dimension. Ed says he can do it. Ed made the Tin Man out of farm equipment and tractor parts, you can see his life and work on his very popular  Bejosh Farm Journal.

The Tin Man is important to me for many reasons, but one, I think, is that he reminds me to value my heart and keep it from turning to stone. I sometimes wake up in the morning glance at the news, and think I am living a kind of recurring social nightmare – it seems that an Army of people whose hearts have turned to stone are now in charge of the country, and I hope that is not so, and if it is so, I hope that their hearts will beat again and once more be generous and compassionate.

It’s a curse, I believe, placed upon a person by a great witch or angel when they forget their sacred promise to God to care for the poor and give them hope. If they don’t, cherubs rush down from the sky and turn their hearts to stone, and the only way they can reclaim their hearts is to do good over and over again.

Perhaps it is a dream, perhaps it is a prophesy. The Tin Man searched everywhere for a  heart before realizing he had one all along. I think that is true of us as well. We are all born with hearts and we all  have hearts, I will not let my heart turn to stone.

I will not permit others to keep my angry or frightened. I will not forget empathy and generosity or the idea that it is better to do good that argue about what is good.

If you have a beating heart, you have the capacity to care for others than yourself. That, I think, is that a heart is, and why it was so clear to the wizard that the Tin Man had one.