Have you ever read a book more than once? Have you found that there were parts of the book that you don’t really remember? Or maybe there are things in which you find new meaning? I’ve re-read a few books in my life and recently I decided to give “Alice’s adventures in Wonderland” another go. I knew, well I thought I knew, what the book was all about, but decided to see if there’s more I can get out of it. And there was!
The main plot
As we all know the plot was a bit random and that’s where the beauty of the book lies. I must admit that I don’t remember quite so much negativity (aggression) in a children’s book. For those of you who can’t quite think of the details, let me remind you. The Queen of Hearts wanted to behead everyone whenever something or someone’s behaviour didn’t please her. C’mon woman, violence is not the answer!
Also, all the animals kept arguing with each other, often for no apparent reason. Then Alice’s intelligence got questioned a few times.
I would have thought that children’s books were to promote treating others well rather than offending them, arguing with them and threatening them.
The secondary plot
Apart from the above randomness, there were a few situations Alice got into that made me think. This is why I am taking a “for adults” spin on the book. When I first read the book, I was ten and so those things didn’t really stand out for me. Now I got the deeper meaning of some of the stories and situations described in the book.
Quotes from Alice’s adventures in Wonderland
“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,’ said the Cat.
‘I don’t much care where -‘ said Alice.
‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.
‘- so long as I get SOMEWHERE,’ Alice added as an explanation.
‘Oh, you’re sure to do that,’ said the Cat.
Isn’t it amazing how simply the Cat has put it? Many people are stuck in their routines and do tasks for the sake of doing them. They think that they are ticking tasks off their to-do lists, and whilst that’s true, they’re not growing as people. If you don’t have a goal and a vision for what you’d like to get out of life, it doesn’t really matter what you do. It doesn’t matter if you’ll go out for a run today or tomorrow, it doesn’t matter if you’ll acquire a particular skill or not. Because even if you do those things, they wouldn’t be contributing towards a greater goal, so their completion is irrelevant.
On the other hand, if you know what you want from life, you will know exactly which way to take!
“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.”
If you’ve ever read any of Tony Robbins’ books, or have attended a seminar, such as Unleash The Power Within you will know why this got my attention. For those who are not familiar with Tony and his way of thinking, I’ll clarify. Nowadays,
if you do a poor job at anything, you’ll get poor rewards. If you do a good job, contrary to the beliefs of many, you also get poor rewards. It’s only when you do an excellent job, you’ll get good rewards. However, if you want to get more than just good rewards, you need to be outstanding.
We are in the information age where knowledge is widely accessible and people, more than ever, have the chance to be whatever they want. This means that doing what you’ve always done won’t get you ahead of the game. You need to step up your game if you want to get the biggest rewards.
“Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality.”
I’d like to paraphrase this, if I may. Instead of “imagination”, I’d rather use “mindset”. If you have the right mindset, reality is irrelevant. Reality is only formed by the meaning we assign to things and people. This means that if you have the right mindset, you can get the best of what seem to be a bad situation. The truth is that the circle of life is such that we all lose someone we love, we can all go through tough periods in our lives and we’re subjected to things that are out of our control. That’s why it’s vital to take control and change the thing we can – our mindset.
What’s next?
Now you’re reminded that re-reading a book can bring you a whole new experience, which book would you re-read first?
