Charles Dickens was in a serious professional slump – and dead broke – when he sat down to write A Christmas Carol, his timeless tale of loss, hope and redemption.
Perhaps one of the best passages in the book is the exchange at the beginning between Scrooge and his nephew on the value of the season. Scrooge questions the nephew’s interest in such a wasteful and unprofitable holiday. The nephew, eloquently:
“There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,” returned the nephew, “Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round – apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that – as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good, and I say God bless it!”
His point is there’s much more to life than business and money, with family and charity being among the most important. Hear, hear, Nephew Fred!
Happy holidays and best wishes for a successful 2012.
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