A Christmas Carol

I just finished my annual reading of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." No matter how times I have read this story or seen it on film, it still moves me. It is one of the greatest conversion stories ever written. We are forever indebted to Charles Dickens for giving us this masterpiece.

Although most people are familiar with the story, let me give you a quick summary. A miserly old man, Ebeneezer Scrooge, thinks that Christmas is a humbug. He is visited by the ghost of his dead partner Jacob Marley. Marley's ghost tells him that he will be visited by three Spirits, Spirits who are the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. They teach Scrooge the true meaning of Christmas. In the end, Scrooge changes his ways and learns "...how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge."

I mentioned in Why I Watch Christmas Movies/Specials that I feel good after watching Christmas movies.  The same is true after reading "A Christmas Carol." My spirit was immediately lifted. It inspires me to treat my fellow man better. Equally important, it reminds me that I can change things in my own life whenever I want. At the same time, it cautions me that many times when we change things in our lives we are often ridiculed by those around us. Dickens' wrote it best: about the people around Scrooge:

"Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him."

It seems that we always run into people who would rather laugh at everyone else than make changes in their own lives. They laugh at our every move when we set out to do something new or different. I say let them laugh. In the end, we will have the last laugh when our hearts, and the hearts of those we touch, are filled with the joy that change can bring. It does not matter if that is something as simple as being friendly to others or getting ourselves out of a bad situation - our hearts will swell like dear Ebeneezer Scrooge's.