Scrooge

‘…every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips should be boiled with his own  pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.’

I’m no literary expert. ‘A Christmas Carol’ is the only Dickens I’ve read; but I do love the way he paints Scrooge’s character.

I’ve often identified with Scrooge. I’ve ‘Bah humbugged’ the commercialism of Christmas, the pressure Christmas puts on people to spend money they don’t have, the blurring of tradition and truth…

And I’ve objected to being told that I should ‘be jolly’… ‘feel Christmassy’…

Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire…

This year’s different. I’m told ‘It’s been a terrible year’, ‘We all feel fed up don’t we!’

I’m being told how I should feel – again! Yes, many people have had a tough year – physical and mental ill-health, employment and financial worries… But being told that I’m feeling depressed/fed-up/angry/frustrated…!?

I’m enjoying a group of truisms that seem to crop up regularly. Shops announcing, ‘When it’s gone, it’s gone’. Football commentators saying, ‘It’s not over till it’s over’ and my favourite, ‘It is what it is’.

This year is what it is. I can’t change that. But I can choose how I respond to it.

…secret and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster…He carried his own low temperature always about with him…

We know the story…

Character: Scrooge was unhappy and self-centred. His coldness, darkness and sadness affected those around him.

Challenge: Scrooge is challenged to examine and face up to the reality of his past, present and future.

Choice: He has to choose how to respond…

Change: It may feel ‘Bah Humbuggy’ this Christmas. We can retreat into our defensive shells. Alternatively, like Scrooge, we can intentionally rediscover and embrace the Christmas spirit of generosity, kindness and warmth.