Lessons from A Christmas Carol

If you are reading this the day it is published, then it is Christmas Eve, but whenever you are reading it the lessons are the same.  It was on Christmas Eve that Ebenezer Scrooge was visited by the Christmas Ghosts - the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

The Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge key moments in his past where, had he taken the opportunity by the hand, he could have become a very different person.  Instead, he rejected all those opportunities to live a happy life and became a miserable miser instead.

The Ghost of Christmas Present appears to Scrooge in the form of Father Christmas.  Not the red, "Coca Cola" version, but the more traditional green robed Father Christmas.  A version beloved of all children who hang their stockings by the fireplace and expect him to come down a very narrow chimney, as Dickens' Ghost of Christmas Present has the essential ability to change his size to fit into any space, small or large.  This Ghost appears both as a jolly, partying Father Christmas carrying a symbol of peace on earth and goodwill toward men (and women!), and a stern, sarcastic chastiser who throws back at Scrooge his own selfish and unthinking comments about the poor and needy.  As he accompanies the Ghost of Christmas Present and sees the probable fate of his employee's disabled son, Tiny Tim, Scrooge seems to feel some remorse, asking whether Tim will really die.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come never speaks, but just points, leaving Scrooge to draw his own conclusions.  The future he shows is grim.  Nobody mourns the death of Scrooge, in great contrast with the feelings of Bob Cratchitt and his family over the death of Bob's son, Tiny Tim.

We all know the outcome of these three visitations, of course.  Ebenezer Scrooge realizes that although he cannot change the past, if he changes what he does in the present he can certainly change the future.  And that is what he does, becoming a changed man spreading joy instead of misery, and receiving joy instead of misery back into his life.

There are very clear messages here we should all learn.

Regret the past, but don't dwell on it.  What has happened has happened, and we cannot change it.  But we must learn from it.  We must see what went wrong and not make the same mistakes over and over again.  Having taken the lesson we need from it, we must give ourselves closure.  Forgive ourselves for anything we may have done which we shouldn't have done.  Forgive others who may have done wrong to us.  This forgiveness both ways is vital.  We cannot allow Christmas Past forever to mar Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come!

Recognize that the future is Yet to Come.  Fear about the future is pointless.  It is not here yet and it can be changed.  Scrooge saw his own death unmourned and Tiny Tim dying prematurely, but neither actually happened, because Scrooge changed his actions in the present.

Remember that the present is all we have.  Don't let anyone take your present from you - it is God's gift to you, giving the word "present" a double meaning.  Nobody has the right to take that gift from you, or the ability to do so unless you yourself give that to them.  Live in the present, and live a full life now - not a live centered in regret about the past or worry about the future.  Do what you should do now, live the live you want to live now, be the person you want to be now, make the changes you want to make in yourself and all that is around you now.  Realize it is not too late to do this, but also that there is no time to lose.  You cannot sit there frozen, thinking you should have done this in the past, and you must not sit there thinking you can do it some time in the future.  Do it now!

Do this and your life and the lives of those around you will change radically and very much for the better, just as was the case for the hero of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol".

Goodwill to All

For many of my readers we are now very close to Christmas.  For those of you who are not Christians, don't worry.  I am not about to start talking about the birth of Christ or trying to "convert" you, and I would also remind you that the origin of Christmas is not Christian anyway.  In case you are interested in the actual origin of many of the things that happen in the Christmas holiday, I wrote an article about this last year, and you can find it here.

What I want to focus on today is the feeling of goodwill we should all have at Christmas.  Well, to be honest, the feeling we should have all year round!  But we have to start somewhere, and if we can elevate our goodwill during this season then that is a great start for spreading the same positive emotion through the rest of the year.

Charles Dickens gave us good reason to do this in his immortal story "A Christmas Carol".  My favourite quote from that lovely novel is "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!"

Spend some time in the next few days reading something Christmassy.  You could do far worse than reading "A Christmas Carol" itself.  Watch some of the tear-jerkers that tend to appear on television this time of year.  Virtually all of them have good and powerful messages if you will only open your heart and listen to them.

Begin this way to work on yourself, improving your own character.  Only by each of us changing and improving ourselves can we change and improve the world around us.  In fact, not just the world around us, but the whole world.  When we change ourselves we are changing the whole world.  As the poet John Donne said in the early 17th century "No man is an island, entire of itself, every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main."  So what happens within us also starts to happen within the world.  Make what happens something good, an increase in goodwill for all men (and women).

On Christmas Day I will post another short article around this theme.  But in the meantime can I ask you to do this one thing for me, whether or not you are able to log in and read my article then.  Remember how I asked everyone on Remembrance Day to spend two minutes visualizing world peace?  Well this time I want you to visualize goodwill.  It is actually the same thing - peace can only come from the goodwill of all people and all nations, and if there genuinely IS such goodwill there can only be peace.

Do this visualization for just two minutes on Christmas Day.  I know it is a busy day for most of us.  We have family around us, perhaps young children busy playing with their presents.  A big Christmas meal.  Yes, we are very busy.  But all I am asking is two minutes.  Just 120 seconds.  Is that really too much to ask?  You will find the time if you try.  And the more of us who try, the more goodwill we will spread throughout the world this Christmas Day.

Please do this even if you are not a Christian.

If you are a muslim for example, you will not be performing some infidel rite.  You will just be doing what the Qu'ran bids you, spreading peace.  "And make not Allah, by your oaths, a hindrance to your being righteous and observing your duty unto Him and making peace among mankind." (Qu'ran 2:224)

Whatever your religion I am sure it welcomes the spreading of goodwill and peace throughout the world.  So spread it on 25th December, when all of us who have read this will be doing the same in unison.

If you have access to the internet on Christmas day, visit my blog again and you will find a further article expanding on this and repeating my plea for a visualization for peace and goodwill.

Peace be with you!