The Earth Day Reading Project

April 22  is The Earth Day.

   My choice for the Earth Day Reading Project was the book “Through the Looking Glass”, by Lewis Carroll. I liked the humor of Lewis Carroll. Since then, when my children were young, we loved this book.The children laughed when I read them (of course, in Russian translation): 
 

`I said you looked like an egg, Sir,' Alice gently explained. `And some eggs are very pretty, you know, she added, hoping to turn her remark into a sort of a compliment. `Some people,' said Humpty Dumpty, looking away from her as usual, `have no more sense than a baby!' 

 Alice didn't know what to say to this: it wasn't at all like conversation, she thought, as he never said anything to her; in fact, his last remark was evidently addressed to a tree - so she stood and softly repeated to herself:

 `Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall:

 Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

 All the King's horses and all the King's men

 Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty in his place again.'

`That last line is much too long for the poetry,' she added, almost out loud, forgetting that Humpty Dumpty would hear her.  `Don't stand there chattering to yourself like that,' Humpty Dumpty said, looking at her for the first time,' but tell me your name and your business.'  `My name is Alice, but -' 

`It's a stupid name enough!' Humpty Dumpty interrupted impatiently. `What does it mean?' `must a name mean something?' Alice asked doubtfully. `Of course it must,' Humpty Dumpty said with a sort laugh: `my name means the shape I am -  and a good handsome shape it is, too. With a name like your, you might be any shape, almost.'

     
   The book, about the Looking Glass world, describes all the familiar emotions: joy and sadness, fear and trust, resentment and perseverance, curiosity and perseverance.
Little Alice always knows what is right and what is wrong and goes to her goal.

   Many adults and children love this story. Some people find a reflection of their fantasies in it , and other people endowed with artistic talent are inspired to realize their creative ideas. Working in the garden in the rain and cold, summer and fall, I try to make a beautiful garden and so my ideas have been achieved.  
So we enjoy the priceless gift that the English mathematician Lewis Carroll made for people more than a century ago.