by Karen Witter

Created on: June 30, 2009   Last Updated: July 05, 2009

Oh The Places You'll Go!

Written to the adventurer in all of us, "Oh the Places You'll Go", is Dr. Seuss's guidebook to the journey of life. The book, filled with his signature delightful illustrations and fabulously fun rhyme, is a brief treatise that reminds both the novice traveler and the road weary wanderer that they can be the things that they always dreamed, with a bit of work and will power. Without ignoring the basic life fact that everything does not always go ideally, the book encourages the reader to get out there and grab life by the horns.

From the first word, "Congratulations!", all of the wide world opens as a possibility. Fun, wonder and delight lurk ahead around the corner, just waiting to be found. Each journeyer is encouraged to examine all the options and then set out. Victory goes, in this tale, not to the strong, or the beautiful, or the popular, but to the one who doesn't just sit around waiting for it to come to them.

With honesty and humor, the book addresses the downs as well as the ups of life. Along with all the vibrant wonders and moments of sweetness, there will be the bleak times, the lonely times, the times when failure looms. There will be those days when trouble is greater than ease, when sorrow is greater than joy and when the road seems too hard to continue on. But, with persistence, even the notorious "waiting place", the most dangerous place where nothing at all happens, can be escaped.

Doing nothing at all is the worst choice, according to the story. For nothing can be gained if nothing is risked. There can be no journey at all if no one is willing to venture out. Even trouble and danger are viewed as better than nothing, and trouble and danger only last for a season. All that is needed is to turn the next page and glorious exploits await.

The reader is continually reminded that they have everything necessary to be successful in this life. There are no prerequisites to complete, hidden secrets to uncover, magic incantations to be recited or degrees that must be earned first. With "brains in your head and feet in your shoes" you are ready to begin and capable to complete the quest that unfolds before you.

And at the end of the tale, everyone is the hero of their own story. Everyone has their moment in the sun. Everyone gets to taste the sweetness of a life well lived. So what are you waiting for? Follow the advice of one of the most beloved children's authors and let the adventure begin!

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