“Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge’s name was good upon ’Change for anything he chose to put his hand to.
“Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.”
Poor Jacob: As dead as a piece of pounded iron.
And poor Scrooge: His evening is about to be inhabited by spirits, all intent on reforming the man whose name has come, in the 171 years since Dickens published this secular masterpiece, to mean a skinflint, a churl, a mean-hearted and dour tightwad.
Never mind that the offending Ebeneezer is reformed over the course of his seemingly endless spirit-ual night. His name still does not bring to mind the conversion, but rather the disease that characterized his unsmiling life right up until the beginning of this 70-page volume: “A Christmas Carol,” by the master of misanthropes — Charles Dickens.
One of my holiday rituals is to read the entire story by Christmas morning. And if I am very lucky, I might catch the 1951 British film in which the Scottish-born Alastair Sim plays Scrooge with a harsh edge. Only Sim’s deliciously surly portrayal could make the morning-after recovery something to rejoice in, as all of Scrooge’s evil and malodorous ways are forgiven as soon as he sends the neighborhood boy running to fetch the enormous turkey that will become Christmas dinner for the Cratchits.
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The Christmas Carol story holds the promise that even the most despicable miscreants who cross our paths can find redemption with a late-hour transfiguration (as long as it is thorough!). It promises that we can overcome the ills we have perpetrated (or not effectively resisted) via a spiritual cleansing that will allow us to see the world as a place of real potential, not stagnation and loss, and possibly even joy, rather than misery — and our fellow travelers as colleagues in the effort.
Given the state of our poor world these days, that is a powerful promise — not an opportunity to be squandered, but one to be scrambled toward and seized with everything we’ve got. Each of our days can be a new chance to grab that opportunity and to make something of it, for the betterment of all of us.
We don’t need to cause enormous changes, but if we don’t at least try, then we have no defense against what we and our world might become. We should take to heart Scrooge’s entreaty to the final spirit, who will show what is forecast if we continue marching on in the same direction, but also what can be if we work to make it happen.
“Ghost of the future!” Scrooge exclaimed, “I fear you more than any spectre I have seen… Lead on!” said Scrooge. “Lead on! The night is waning fast, and it is precious time to me, I know. Lead on, Spirit!”
Lead on.
Words of War 