December 22, 2024 – Welcome to my backyard city homestead

I am a big fan of Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol. Partly due to it’s overall message of redemption, It has become an important part of my Christmas over the years. Published 181 years ago (December 19 1843) it has been in the public domain for longer than I’ve been alive and as such has been reprinted innumerable times, and the subject of countless movies from classic to animated versions including a very famous one by the Muppets with Michael Caine, as well as millions of stage performances.

Many common terms in modern day English originated from the story and whether you’ve read the story or not, you probably know who Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s nephew, Ghost of Christmas Present, Mrs. Cratchit and Tiny Tim are.

For those of my friends who also love the story, do you remember the scene where this beautiful observation is noted? It’s contextual paragraph is: “It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”

The person who exuded such contagious good humor is the one we know only as Scrooge’s nephew, who had stopped by with his traditional invitation to Christmas dinner, to which his uncle just as traditionally threw back in his face. Most of us – having received such a refusal would never issue another invitation – justifying to ourselves that we had done our duty. Not this good man. He believed that Christmas time was a time to be extra “kind, forgiving, charitable and pleasant”, a time to “open shut up hearts … and to think of” others. And he embodied that testimony. I love Scrooge’s nephew. Wouldn’t we all want to have such a one in our families? Wouldn’t we all want to BE that one in our family?

From the indomitable Christmas Spirit of Scrooge’s nephew, to the true nature of Ebeneezer Scrooge himself,

Charles Dickens paints for us a picture of a man almost past being capable of feeling anything akin to ‘good humour’. His world was small, and it revolved completely around himself. From that heavy gravitational pull he had almost lost the ability to lift his eyes to see those around him.

I love descriptive lines like these; they create an image that I can literally ‘see’. Dickens was known for being descriptive and for his ability to have empathy – to understand his characters and to share feelings with them. He lived with his characters. He knew them intimately. They became representative as he addressed societal issues he was passionate about. I’m sure at times the line between reality and the world he was in the midst of creating often became blurred. Such is the skill (and sometimes the burden) of one who uses his God-given talent to raise the cause of humanity, and to inspire us all to better works.

Scrooge’s only contemporary (the only one who came close to understanding him) was his former partner Jacob Marley.

Whether ‘friendship’ was possible between two such immensely selfish, self absorbed human beings is hard to say, but we know they were business partners, and as such – they were well suited to each other. Kindred spirits, in that they looked at life the same way. And so it was that it fell upon Jacob Marley to deliver a message to his protege – a message that may have been his only opportunity to interact with the world of the living, and thereby in some small way influence some good in it.

The setting is Scrooge’s bedroom.

The scene that comes to mind with this quote is a tender one that never ceases to make me weep when I read it. It is the one where Jacob Marley stands before Scrooge with all his chains “made of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel.” His explanation: “in life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole” and now from the vantage point of the world of spirits, he added “No rest, no peace. Incessant torture of remorse. . . .
Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness! Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I!”

One can literally FEEL it. The pain and agony of Jacob Marley’s “incessant torture of remorse”. What about all those who like him, find themselves in similar conditions? Charles Dickens may have been a flawed man, but he had moments of sheer inspiration when he allowed the spirit of God to flow through his pen. And he did immense good for generations yet to come of those who continue to read his words and allow their message to soak into their hearts. Jacob Marley admitted “of my own free will I wore [this chain]”, and that sitting by Scrooge during some days, watching him forge his own chain was “no light part of my penance”.

To Scrooge’s attempt to pacify him with flattery, he cried aloud and wringing his hands responded “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!’
It held up its chain at arm’s length, as if that were the cause of all its unavailing grief, and flung it heavily upon the ground again.
‘At this time of the rolling year,’ he said, ‘I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode? Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me?’”

Truly there are many homes to which that light would conduct US in our individual lives. If we learn nothing else from Jacob Marley, it must be to look beyond ourselves and see what we can do for those around us – while we still can.

At leaving through the window Marley joined a mournful dirge – “coherent sounds of lamentation and regret; wailings inexpressibly sorrowful and self accusatory”. Scrooge watched one such ghost cry piteously “at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below, upon a door-step. The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power for ever.”

Such is the tragedy of regret.

the empowerment of the ‘present’

This quote is perhaps my favourite – because it is empowering. The PRESENT is what matters; it is the time to act. Wallowing in what SHOULD have been, and worrying or even the intentional planning for what COULD be will not change the Present. Doing something NOW is the only thing in our control and the only thing that can influence the course of future events.

The ghost of Christmas Present boldly states “You have never seen the like of ME before!” and truly we haven’t. Neither Ebeneezer or us.

I am reminded of a favourite hymn written by Will L. Thompson . . . .

Have I done any good in the world today? Have I helped anyone in need?
Have I cheered up the sad? and made someone feel glad?
If not, I have failed indeed.
Has anyone’s burden been lighter today Because I was willing to share?
Have the sick and the weary been helped on their way?
When they needed my help was I there?

Then wake up! and do something more – Than dream of your mansion above.
Doing good is a pleasure, a joy beyond measure,
A blessing of duty and love.

There are chances for work all around just now, Opportunities right in our way.
Do not let them pass by, saying, “Sometime I’ll try,” But go and do something today.
’Tis noble of man to work and to give; Love’s labour has merit alone.
Only he who does something helps others to live.
To God each good work will be known.

I heard someone say recently that decorating for Christmas has magic in it. Truly, a strange phenomenon happens when the lights go up, the nativities come out, Christmas music is playing on the radio and the house smells of gingerbread. People are kinder, more thoughtful and even charitable. Strangers lend a hand to strangers. Neighbours share things they don’t think to share at other times. People greet each other and take their leave with a “Merry Christmas” . We become aware of ways we can contribute to someone’s personal celebration. No other time of the year are these acts so concentrated as in the time we are preparing to celebrate Christmas – no matter what that looks like to you. It is one of the great Christmas Miracles!

the greatest miracle is a changed heart

And that is the wonderfulness of the Christmas Carol – that even such a one as Ebeneezer Scrooge, that “tight-fisted hand at the grindstone”, that “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner” himself – could change. He could change and he did change. And if him, than why not me?

Every time I close that book for another year, I recommit myself to being better. “This life” Amulek said, “is the time for men to prepare to meet God , , .” (Alma 34:32) I believe that, and Charles Dickens through Jacob Marley, the Ghost of Christmas Present and Ebeneezer himself witnessed the truthfulness of it. Because of the intervention of mercy, he was able to turn his life around, and through the atoning sacrifice of our Saviour, he was given a new life – the chance to right his wrongs and lift his eyes to new opportunities. He escaped the torment of endless remorse that Marley – who turned out to be the truest of friends – was condemned to.

Upon feeling the spirit of redemption (perhaps for the first time in his life), he joyfully proclaimed “I don’t know what to do! I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A Merry Christmas to EVERYBODY! A Happy New Year to all the world!”

He changed his future because he change his ‘present’. He effectually changed his legacy. He who was known to be frightful, the one who caused people to cross the street to avoid stepping in his shadow, the one who by his own words, “wished to be left alone”, . . . on Christmas Day, “went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and fro, and patted children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the windows, and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed that any walk — that anything — could give him so much happiness.”