Why Don't You...

 imagine yourself into Oscar Wilde's impeccably polished shoes for a day?.

To start, here's a roundup on Wilde's state (mentally, emotionally, socially, lunatically and, most importantly, imaginatively) that you'll need to tap into. Buckle up, for you may be repeating these words he sang out over a century ago:

1. I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.
2. When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.
3. I can resist everything but temptation.
4. Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
5. There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
6. To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
7. No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.
8. It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.
9. I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
10. A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally.

Don't you feel ritzier already?

Most would argue that Wilde hid himself behind a mask, and he may have meant so when he said: "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth." So, during this experiment in patent leather shoes, I'd like you to mask yourself in order to understand how difficult it was for Oscar to do.  Why would he, master of words and now man of myth, hide himself behind a mask of high-class opulence?  Two word: REJECTED PERSONALITY.

Does you're face have a quizzical look on it just about now?  Fasten your silver-buckled Victorian heels and head on up to my newer post where I'll expound (though not nearly as sublime as Oscar might have) on the matter.