After reading about Alice in Wonderland last week, I legit fell into a rabbit hole myself. Some things I never knew:

• Through the Looking-Glass is the sequel to Alice in Wonderland;
• Author Lewis Carroll was a mathematics professor at the University of Oxford.

Huh.

In Through the Looking-Glass Alice enters another fantastical world where, just like a reflection, everything is reversed, including logic. This feels like my life sometimes – you? Some Google searches include the following as themes from Lewis’ sequel:

• Growing up is lonely;
• The importance of love, forgiveness, and family;
• Believe in the madness, believe in the impossible.

A Research Guide for Students shares this as an important theme from the book https://www.aresearchguide.com/through-the-looking-glass-themes.html:

Loneliness and Maturity

“As Alice makes her way through the Looking-Glass World, she tries to find help and friendship several times and she is refused repeatedly. As a little girl she believes that others will naturally help her on her way. She finds that this is not the case. As her situation becomes increasingly strange and unmanageable, she is compelled to find her own way and rely on her own wits.The lesson Alice learns is that the adult world can be cruel and unforgiving. The only way to really get through life is on your own, that in the end, we are all on our own.”

Fun…

Years ago, I used to teach middle school mathematics. I used to tell my students that I wasn’t there to teach them math; my job was to teach them how to solve problems. I used to say: “One day, you will be faced with a major real-life problem and there will be no one to help you. It will be left for you, and you alone, to solve.”

I wonder where some of them are now? I wonder if they remember that message? Do they read my blog? I hope they haven’t had to deal with anything difficult… Yet… But eventually, everyone will.

I wonder if Lewis Carroll and I would have gotten along? I mean, we were both math teachers, writers, and shared a similar view of the adult world. Is that enough to make us friends? LOL. Kidding not kidding. I wonder about a lot of things. How’s Alice?

My mind goes back to hope. When going through difficult times, if you have hope, and even just one friend, you might be ok. You might just make it.