“‘There are some upon this earth of yours,’ returned the Spirit, ‘who claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us, and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us.’” ~ Charles Dickens, “A Christmas Carol”
Christmas stories abound these days: “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,” “A Christmas Story,” National Lampoon’s “Christmas Vacation,” “Elf,” and so on. This year I’m drawn back to the Charles Dickens’ classic, “A Christmas Carol” with its cautionary tale of Ebenezer Scrooge.
First published in 1843, Dickens’ novella, written in six weeks in response to financial constraints (the writing business hasn’t changed much), is a social commentary on wealth disparity, class warfare, and the results of a life consumed with greed and avarice.
Today, when 1% of the world’s population own more than the bottom 95% (according to Forbes), Dickens’ cautionary tale is as applicable now as it was in 19th century England, when people were regularly tossed into “debtor’s prison” for not being able to pay their bills, or sold into indentured servitude. Dickens himself had been forced to drop out of school and go to work in the factories as a child to help the family make ends meet. That experience informed much of his writing later on.
Scrooge is visited by four ghosts: his dead friend Marley with a warning of what’s to come, the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the Ghost of Christmas Future. Each Christmas ghost brings its own lesson for Scrooge.
Christmas Past shows Scrooge his history, how he became a bitter miserly man, begrudging his own family the simplest of creature comforts. How he allowed his own hurts and rejections to twist him into meanness.
Christmas Present reveals to Scrooge his own isolation and separation from the joy and generosity of the season, and warns of the impending doom of ignorance and want that will come to as a result of continued greed and avarice.
Christmas Future, or Christmas Yet-to-Come, silently points out the consequences of Scrooge’s past and present actions. His death will be neither mourned nor remembered, and his actions will have caused much harm to others, including Tiny Tim.
In the story — oh, if only life were so simple — Scrooge changes his tune, he’s convicted by the spirits that visit him, by the scenes they reveal about his past, the present, and his probable future, and he repents (which simply means to turn around and go the other direction).
Would that we might all entertain a “visit” in the form of self-reflection and honest personal inventory from those three ghosts this time of year. If we’re bitter and miserly, judging others with the hefty weight of self-righteousness and ourselves with the tap of a feather, Scrooge shows us that we can change at any given moment. It’s never too late to “sponge away the writings on this stone.”
May we close out the calendar year with the determination: “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”