In searching for a topic to write about this week, I checked out some online blogs that were new to me for ideas and inspiration.

‘What are other people out there in the big, wide world blogging about?’ I wondered.

A sweet friend directed me to the blog of a woman she knew in the ‘big city’. I checked out her site and, in doing so, entered into a different world. I literally drooled in envy. Here was a woman who had it all : a fast-paced, sophisticated, and modern lifestyle, trendy fashion sense, a job which she was passionate about, and a beautiful face and figure! Her blogs were smart, witty, and enthusiastic. Her ambition, energy, and devotion to her life as a professional, and as a mother, awed me. Many of her posts were about her children and her worldly experiences. Her fit and fabulous photographs adorned her website. She was a self-proclaimed neat and organization freak. She was doing what she loved, living an inspired life, and she even had the time to blog about it! I thought — ‘How?! How can she be and do all of these things and appear so perfectly put together?!’ I turned to my friend to ask her more about this woman, and she replied, “Remember, that’s Alice (*name has been changed).”

Ahhhh. Alice. Yes. I remembered my friend telling me about her.

In my mind, I started to make connections to my friend’s Alice and Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Alice in Wonderland. Taking a closer look into the blog Wonderland that this Alice had created, I realized that down the rabbit-hole things were not exactly as they appeared. While parts of Alice’s blog persona held true in real life, other parts had been amplified to create a world of wonder and amazement to her blog followers. Alice was not what she claimed to be in entirety. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that Alice is a lovely woman and my friend spoke highly of her. I’m certainly not judging her as a person. I did come to the quick realization, though, that Alice was re-creating herself, establishing a new reality, not unlike what fiction writers (such as myself) do when they create characters and a world in which they live. Characters, their feelings, behaviours, and how they act upon the worlds they live in can be exactly who and what the writer wants them to be, just like Alice could be who she wanted to be on her website.

“Dear, dear!… Who in the World am I? Ah, that’s the great puzzle!” (Carroll, p.18-19)

What brings on this need to create a different world or persona for ourselves, our own Wonderland of sorts? Is it unhappiness or a certain discontentment with what we have? Is it the desire for more, for a better, more fantastical life? Do we have an image that we want to portray to others that is different from the one that is real? Are we like Carroll’s Alice, always searching to be a different size and to find the bigger and better things down the rabbit-hole? Is it a “Wonderland Goals Gone Wild” idea? Is it self-improvement on steroids?

Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way. (Carroll, p. 15)

Like the character, Alice, maybe have we become bored with the reality and the normalcy of who we are. Perhaps we are looking for adventure by recreating a virtual life of excitement, style, intrigue, and fun. Most of us want people to only think the best of us and to see us in the most positive of lights, but for some of us, the reality of our lives is quite simple and, in some opinions, quite boring. Surely we can be who we want, but when it comes to portraying to be something that we are not, especially in terms of “selling” ourselves or our services, are we deceiving potential buyers or consumers if we have skewed our, and consequently their, reality?

“Who are you?” said the Caterpillar.

Alice replied, rather shyly, “I- I hardly know, sir, just at present – at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.” (Carroll, p.51)

Carroll’s Alice had found herself changed in so many ways since her fall down the rabbit-hole that she had lost sight of who she really was. In a fantasy Wonderland created by one’s own desires and ambitions, things can be rarely as they seem and one’s true vision of him or herself can be lost. By speaking and writing in a certain way, choosing words, dropping names, and allowing implications to be understood as true reality, one can allow others to believe, even lead them to the belief, that one’s life or persona is one way (cool, modern, carefree) when in reality it may be another (sedate, ordinary, and apprehensive).

“Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice. (Carroll, p.16)

Semantics, the meaning of words and how they are used, play a huge role in reality and in Wonderland creation. It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it — how words are used carefully, cautiously, and intricately in sentences. It is how one thing can be said, and another implied. We all know of situations where others have been led to believe that someone they knew was connected to a famous person, only to learn later that “connected” meant “met once” or was “a friend of a cousin of my father’s great uncle”. You catch my drift; not entirely a lie, not entirely the truth.

For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately that Alice had begun to think that very few things were really impossible. (Carroll, p.11)

We can paint a vivid picture leading people to believe that we do, in fact, live in a Wonderland of sorts. The truth is, once we’ve climbed back up from the rabbit-hole and re-emerged from Wonderland, in the end, it all boils down to who we really are, and how we feel about ourselves that matters. How you choose to display your “Alice” to the world is up to you. It is important to remember, however, that while works of art can be intriguing, one should always look closely to read the true message behind the artist’s inspiration.

(Dear Readers, thank you once again for reading and sharing me! Your comments and feedback is always appreciated. Thank you for your continued support – you are truly valued! Yours, ~ K ~ )