Through the Looking Glass...

The real "Mad Hatter's" house

Beginning the Alice in Wonderland tour

The River Thames

A reading of "Jabberwocky" in the Botanical Gardens

'Twas brillig and the slithy toves

Did gyre and and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogroves,

and the mome raths outgrabe.

- From "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll

Today twas brillig. Oxford celebrated Alice's Day, a day commemorating Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. As I mentioned in my earlier post, Oxford is a city filled with history, particularly literary history. And so, today I took a walk along the Thames and the River Cherwell retracing the steps Lewis Carroll and Alice Little took as Carroll created a story to keep the young Alice occupied. Even 150 odd years later, the magic of Alice's world shimmers atop the glossy surface of the river. As I walked through Christ Church meadows and listened as our guide described the many walks and boat rides Carroll and Alice took, the otherworldly quality of the land struck me. White swans elegantly floated through the water as the trees bowed over the river, reflecting various shades of speckled green. Arched bridges stretched over the water. Through a trick of reflection, it appeared that just below the surface of the water bridges arched in the opposite direction, offering a route to the world through the looking glass.

It's days like today that are refreshing in that they allow adults to sport bunny ears and pretend to sip tea out of empty tea cups. Days like today allow us to imagine that another world exists in which words don't always need to make sense and the flowers can rise up and dance. I appreciate this as sometimes the adult world can just get so heavy. While I don't wish to regress to childhood, it would be nice to still live in a world of childhood. A world that never ceases to amaze and that offers endless opportunities for an imaginative experience of daily life. A world that makes sense in all of its nonsense. A world that allows us to wander confusedly through all of the madness and eventually find our home again.

To end today's blog, I'll leave you with some notable quotes from Alice in Wonderland.

Alice: I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is 'Who in the world am I?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!

Alice: I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, Sir, because I'm not myself you see.

Cheshire Cat: We're all mad here.

The Duchess: Take care of the sense, and the sounds will take care of themselves.

Alice: Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if only I knew how to begin.