'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.
'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.
At first glance, it would seem that the infamous Cheshire Cat of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures
in Wonderland has produced an excellent bit of wisdom: if you don’t know
where you’re going, then it doesn’t matter how you go about getting there. My
immediate objection to this conversation concerns the habit that we all have of speaking
in extreme, black-and-white terms. I highly doubt that Alice has no desire to get to any particular place; in fact I’m sure
if she reflected upon the question she would be able to enumerate a variety of different places that she might like to visit. I believe it
far more likely that Alice has some idea of where she wants to go, and so
perhaps we can adjust the Cat’s response to say that if you have someplace you sort-of-maybe think you’d like to go, then the direction you choose to travel
matters at least a little bit. And that’s a perfect place to start from with this blog.
