Through the looking glass

Alice, or rather the person who wrote her story, got it right. Each person's lens is different. In other words, each person looks on life with a slightly different perspective. No one is objective when it comes to their life. This affects them living their life to the fullest. Some people are only willing to think up to a certain point, and then can go no deeper. Some can go deep but they cannot apply what they know to their own lives. Still others can go deep, and what scares them causes them to, not back away, but to try to find a solution to what they find when they go deep. The solution usually gets so convoluted that even the person doesn't really know why they are doing what they're doing, but by that time, they believe so deeply in the lie they created, it seems so real that they can make reasons on top of reasons, to explain the lies. This is called denial.
People look on life with so many different perspectives. That is precisely why psychology is so fascinating to most people. The variation in/ of our minds is infinite. So, psychologists can study forever and still be learning new things in their field every day, except human nature gets in the way.
Our minds do so much and yet we use them so little. There is a saying "A mind is a terrible thing to waste" It is in a NAACP commercial talking about college for African Americans who can't afford it. In reality though, wasting your mind is your choice. It's just that some people have to work harder at it than others. Your background can be shitty,  rich or poor, but that has nothing to do with the ability to overcome hard times.
"A Mind is a terrible thing to waste" But, in reality, most people waste their minds every day, EVEN those with a college education, because for one reason or another, they aren't REALLY paying attention. Your perspective on life is YOUR CHOICE. So the saying shouldn't be "A mind is a terrible thing to waste". It should be "Change your mind, Change your life".