Finding Wisdom

in the

Whimsical

-an essay-

“My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.” Lewis Carroll, Queen of Hearts

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”

“I don’t much care where –”

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.” Lewis Carroll (pp 53), Alice and Cheshire

These quotes from Lewis Carrol’s children’s novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, quite perfectly depict the contrast in adult’s perspectives and children’s perspectives.

As most children can attest to, one of the most frequent questions from adults is “what do you want to be when you grow up?” I always used to panic, because how the heck was a six-year-old who doesn’t even know what mommy is going to make for lunch know what she wants to do when she’s older. The earliest answers I remember giving are being a dental hygienist, or a hair stylist. The adults would smile and nod approvingly at my six-year-old fancies.

In high school, you are expected to know the course of path you will take your life down. As though the moment you walk through the doors to your freshman year you will be struck with a lightning bolt of clarity where suddenly the whole map of your life will fall into your lap. And yet so many teenagers still don’t know the destination they are wanting to arrive at, even by second semester of junior year, sometimes senior. Which makes me beg the question, why should they be pressured to pick a college if they don’t know what they are going there for? I am reminded of the wisdom of the Cheshire cat, if you do not have a destination in mind then the direction you take should not matter. And if you do have a destination, then why not simply trust the path you have chosen to take you there?

And yet, if you even so much as imply that you may not go to college you are subjected to blank stares. To the extent that now, when sixteen-year-old me answers the adult’s question saying I want to be a writer and am unsure whether or not I will go to college, and am, in fact, leaning more towards the latter, the quiet approval turns to not so well concealed concern for me going into a profession of “starving art.” Furthermore, they are astonished I would ever consider going in without a college degree. How on earth do I expect to survive? Tis a mystery, indeed. Adults are so trapped in the Queen of Hearts’s mindset; the ideology of running as fast as possible just to survive and having to double your speed in order to actually make it anywhere. They simply cannot understand.

But what if we all took a step back and paused to question these ideologies that are the societal norm and contemplated having some childlike faith and going mad. For “the best people usually are [mad].” Lewis Carroll. This, I believe, is the point Lewis Carroll made in his story Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, he wrote the story for the children but the theme he penned for the adults, young and old alike. He wanted us to recognize the wisdom found within the whimsical. He wanted us to open our eyes to the possibilities that are out there if only we have faith enough to reach for them, cliché as it sounds.

It is as JM Barrie wrote in her classic, Peter Pan, “The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”

First off, I feel it prudent to explore the wisdom hidden within the whimsy of the seemingly nonsensical caucus-race.

Lewis writes, “First it [the dodo bird] marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, (“the exact shape doesn’t matter,” it said,) and then all the party were placed along the course, here and there. There was no “One, two, three, and away,” but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over.” Lewis Carroll (pp 21)

Growing up, I watched the Disney movie which depicts the race never coming to an end and Alice wanders off. However, Lewis did not originally write it in such a way. Eventually the race does come to an end and the Dodo bird declares “everybody has one, and all must have prizes.” Lewis Carroll, (pp 21).

And this scene, as written originally, reminds me a lot of life. We’ve all heard the term “Circle of Life,” and the Bible depicts life as a race, one we all run for different reasons, but ultimately a race that should be run for God. So maybe life, much like this caucus-race, is a circle race. One where everyone starts in their own time and stops in their own time, running at their own time of pace. A race where, when it ultimately comes to an end, everyone wins in their own way. Because everyone ultimately gets what they want.

In the novel, all the animals were given the same prize: comfits from Alice’s pocket. However, eating them “caused some noise and confusion, as the large birds complained that they could not taste theirs, and the small ones choked and had to be patted on the back.” Lewis Carroll, (pp 22)

In the end, it is the same prize given to all of us. Eternity in the place we have chosen, Light or Dark. While it seems like a loss for those like the large birds, so great in their own size that they cannot taste the light of Heaven, we must remember that they have won in their own way. They have chosen to love the dark and hate the light, they did not wish to live even their brief earthly life in the Light so God will neither force them nor welcome them into His Light for eternity. They are being given the destination they have chosen. And for those like the small birds, who are so small in their own size that they choke on the vastness of the Heavenly Light, they are allowed through the gates. They made themselves small in size, humble. They have hated the darkness and run towards the light. So now they get light for eternity; the destination they chose. Everyone is a winner with their own kind of prize, and while some are not as “good” as others, they are the prizes each contestant chose.

Secondly, we find a jumbled-up tidbit of wisdom from the moral-seeking Duchess. In a conversation with Alice, who remarks “[mustard] it’s a vegetable. It doesn’t look like one, but it is.” To which the Duchess replies, “I quite agree with you… And the moral of that is – ‘Be what you would seem to be’ – or to put it more simply – ‘Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them otherwise.” Lewis Carroll (pp 78), Alice and Duchess.

At first glance, it is easy to get caught up in the confound complexity of the moral. Easy to be like Alice, “Dreadfully puzzled. The… remark seemed to have no meaning in it, and yet it was certainly English.” Lewis Carroll, (pp 59). But if we back it up to her original statement before she attempted to simplify it, the Duchess said, “Be what you would seem to be” and if we place it in the context of their dialogue, they are talking about mustard which is supposedly a vegetable even though it doesn’t look it. Therefore, we can arrive at the conclusion that the moral, the wisdom, the Duchess was getting at is simply this: Look like who you are and be what you look like.

For Christians this is especially important. We cannot just put on the façade of Christianity – going to church, wearing a cross, posting Bible verses, telling people we will pray for them. We have to actually BE in Christianity, walking it out. Doing “church” everyday by being in our Bibles. Model not only the materialistic symbol of the cross, but the love it signifies as well. Do not just preach through a post; telling other people how to live, rather post the paradigm of how you are trying to live yourself. And lastly, do not merely give the halfhearted statement of “praying for you” only to continue on with your day and barely think of the person again. Stop with them, in the moment, and pray. Over the phone, in the car, on a bus, wherever you are. It is as Lewis Carroll once said, “One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others.”

Drop all pretenses of who you think you ought to be, what you ought to look like. Look, instead, like the person you truly are. Look messy, look tired, look weary, look joyful, look lost, look hopeful, look like the world, look like Christ. Wherever you are at in life, look it. That way those around you know how to identify you and help. Hiding never does any good. It only leads to more hurt, either for you or those on whom you have influence, usually both. Stop pretending to be someone you are not.

If there is a person you want to one day be, adopt a trait of them one at a time. I, as a Christian, for example, want to be like Christ. But I know if I were to step perfectly into His “outfit” all at once I would be overwhelmed. I would suddenly love everyone while at the same time despising all the ways they are going against God. I would be rejoicing with those praising Him, and weeping with those so lost and broken they are crying out to Him. I would be in the full presence of God, I would be perfect, complete, holy. And while I will never be Christ Himself, as that is not the way it was intended, I do desire to be like Him. That is who He has called me to be, a young woman who reflects Him. But I cannot step into that suit all at one time and truly wear it well. It takes time and patience to pull the look off, day after day, to slowly get closer and closer to the ideal.

Jesus knew this, He tells us “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross DAILY and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) Our savior knew we could never make it to where He is at in a day, rather it is a repeated process of making our way to where we will reside with Him forever. A process we go through every day. So, one day, I may put on the shoes and read my Bible. Other days, I am armed with the sword of the spirit; allowing Him to guide me. The goal would be to wear many pieces of the armor on many different days and build upon each one until I am taking up the full suit each and every morning, bearing the weight of the coat of arms even after I climb into bed. And simply retightening everything when I rise again upon a new day.

While on earth, I will never model the outfit perfectly. But my goal is to wear it a little bit better each new day than I did the last. And I will be honest in how I am wearing it. What I wear will match with who I am; where I’m at.

In short, I will take the wisdom of the whimsical Duchess. I will be what I would seem to be.

And finally, we come to the last piece of wisdom I will explore in this essay – although there is much more in the many other whimsies of Carroll’s work – the piece which is both the simplest and most complex of them all. We find the wisdom in chapter eleven, spoken by the King of Hearts whilst Alice stands as a witness to the trial of missing tarts. A piece of evidence has just been presented, one Alice claims there is not an atom of meaning in, and yet it is the strongest piece of evidence they have. (Which just goes to show how whimsical the entire courtroom setting really was). The King speaks a reply to Alice’s statement saying, “if there is no meaning in it [the evidence] … that saves a world of trouble, you know, as we needn’t try to find any.” Lewis Carrol, (pp 105).

So here it is, the final piece of wisdom in the whimsical. Do not seek meaning for things in which there isn’t any. Too often today people try to find the “why” in every situation. The cause for the death of their child, the healing to one person but not another. When in reality, it is simply this: good things happen and so do bad things. We do not know the reason for all of them, just that we must trust in the One whom does. And we should try to live our lives to be things of truth, beauty, and goodness.

Do not get caught up in the whosits and whatsits. For life, like Ariel, has whosits and whatsits galore. Rather, live your life to the fullest. Live as though every day is your last. Live in each moment as though it is the way you will live forever. Because “How long is forever?” “Sometimes, just one second.” Lewis Carroll, Alice and White Rabbit.

Live in a way that serves and brings joy to others. “Those who bring sunshine to others cannot keep it from themselves.”J.M Barrie.

Live in a manner that causes no regrets and brings glory to the Kingdom.

Live by faith. For “all the world is made of faith, trust, and pixie dust.” J.M Barrie, Peter Pan.

So, after all of this, what is the point of Lewis Carroll’s story? Is there a point, or was it simply written to entertain? The answer is yes. To all accounts. It was written to entertain, and it was written to have meaning. It was written to confuse, and it was written to bring clarity. Most of all, it was written to delight, and it was written to remind. It will delight children with fancies and whimsy, and it will remind adults of forgotten fairytales and the wisdom that can almost always be found within the whimsical.

“One day you will be old enough to read fairy tales again.” C.S Lewis.

I always thought this quote referred to when you grew up and had children so were reading the tales to them. Or to when you outgrew caring what people thought of you and thus read the tales that pleased you most. And yet I wonder now if the meaning is this, as a child you read for whimsical delight and one day, when you are old enough, you re-read for wise discernment.

“Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood: and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago: and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days.” Lewis Carroll, (pp 109).