POLITICS AND NATURE

They were a boy and a girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish, but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread.

Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude.

'Spirit. Are they yours?' Scrooge could say no more.

'They are Man's' said the Spirit, looking down upon them. 'And they cling to me appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it.' cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. 'Slander those who tell it ye. Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And abide the end.'

'Have they no refuge or resource?' cried Scrooge.

'Are there no prisons' said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. 'Are there no workhouses?'

A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

John 1:17

The season is full in its meaning and in how the hope and joy of humanity rise to occasions each and every year. The time is filled with family and friends while the spirit drives us to become better with each passing year. It is a time for reflection. On the past year and over lifetimes. It is a chance to start over at this time of year, a time for renewal and strengthening. Whether life surrounds us with family or finds us in solitude, there is meaning in the time of year for us all. Good old Tiny Tim knew, he blessed everyone.

I read recently that in the time Dickens wrote his family classic, it is estimated that 1/2 of the funerals in London were for children under ten. Tiny Tim Crachett was not far from reality. Over on this side of the big pond, as it is sometimes called, people had many children to make up for those who died in infancy or who didn't make it past a young age. I won't go into the vast amounts of racial and other injustices existing at the time which could take another series of articles or a few books. The point is that we grow as people and as societies.

At this time of year. And this day in particular, we find ourselves being thankful for what we have, looking to the Lord for encouragement and satisfaction that we will learn to be better....to love more fully, grow stronger in our relationship with whatever our conceptions of the Lord are, fulfill our commitments to our fellow man, create lasting achievements, not to stand as a testament to our material legacies, but to engage others in the pursuit of being fully human. And this, as Ebenezer Scrooge learns again every year on the TV, requires not wealth or high degrees or business acumen, but compassion, laughter, and life. These enhance life. And this time of year we try and remind ourselves of this important and everlasting truth of the human condition and to celebrate past lives while looking longingly into the future.

Old Ebenezer had had it. He was done. Through. Humbug! Bah! Finished with all of it. Just wanted to be left alone in his sorrow and shake a finger at the "lazy discontented rabble" enjoying life while he worked, slaving away, a scion of efficiency, thrift, and ruthless stoicism. Mr. Potter learned nothing from Scrooge.

Power has a way of freezing the hearts of men (yes and women too) over time. There is no time to look back, no time to ponder the effect of our actions, only the next deal, purchase, or buyout. Leveraging your position becomes an obsession. Feeding the pig at the heart of it all.

Good Old Fessiwig!!!

The funny part is, none of this is anti capitalist or anti capitalism. There are cries heard around the world about the unfairness levied on the wealthiest with a fair amount of regularity. Look at what happened in Bali (or Kyot0). Charles Dickens, however, does not take on capitalism at all in A Christmas Carol. He warns about abuse that abounds in its wake and entertains us with the notion that maybe there is something more to being human than greed after all.  

The men seeking donations for the poor, it can be assumed, knew businessmen, if they were not themselves in the business of making business.  It is also obvious other businessmen existed who supported these individuals in their efforts to help the poor, without making wise about prisons and workhouses. Bob Crachett worked in business. So often, we think of businessmen as only those who conduct transactions and negotiations at the highest levels. Not so.

Then there is Fessiwig (just as a note, I have no idea about the spelling of any of these names, just a semi-literate-educated guess.) A jolly old man who was quite successful and even Scrooge, in his dismay, held fond memories of him. The chaps at the exchange, where Scrooge was sure he would find encouragement, laughed at the mean old man's demise, joked about having lunch at the deceased expense. Not too funny for poor Mr. Scrooge. Even the charwoman selling his things exhibits a perverse form of capitalism, but nobody cared or would notice, the things she stole anyway.

And, finally.....perhaps most importantly, Scrooge himself was "good as his word" and became a leading citizen with respect and dignity. Dickens did not have scrooge give away everything and die in poverty. He just changed his ways. Laughed a bit more (perhaps a Lot more), played with children, respected others, and tried, for his part, throughout the rest of his life, to make the world a better place to live in for all the people in it....everyone.

Peace on Earth

An unlikely scenario? Probably. Illogical? Certainly. But that is what the Nazarene brought to people and instilled in the minds and hearts of men and women through the ages. It is difficult to know what exactly to call Jesus without offending 80% of the population and making me seem like an ungrateful, ungodly, heathen. Jesus works, but the words are so wonderful in all of his known monikers. He was from Nazareth. He is known as Christ, the Son of God, the Son of Man, Mary's Son, Jesus of Bethlehem, and he could be called Jesus of Egypt if one were to so choose (Joseph, Mary, and Jesus,  waited out Herod in Egypt). Essentially, he is a man of many names and there is a benefit to that. 

It is today we celebrate the birth of Jesus. We share gifts and enjoy family, ponder the meaning of Jesus in the best of times, allow him to carry us through the worst. It is a difficult thing to quantify, the love of Jesus. It is probably best to simply copy his words from the mount. It is probably among the most used of the biblical teaching, but things are used because they are good. I have placed the sermon on the mount, in its entirety, in the section on quotes.