“And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.”
Though the holiday season has been celebrated in song and story for centuries, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more touching or eloquent account than “A Christmas Carol,” Charles Dickens’ timeless tale of loss, hope and redemption.
Interestingly, Dickens was in a bit of a professional slump – and broke – when he sat down to write it in 1843. He also had 10 children to support.
Perhaps one of the best passages in the novella is the exchange at the beginning between Scrooge and his nephew, Fred, on the value of the season. Scrooge questions the nephew’s enthusiasm for such a wasteful and unprofitable holiday. The nephew answers him brilliantly:
“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!”
Later the same evening, of course, Scrooge comes to realize that while he is a successful businessman by all worldly measures, he has failed at attending to the “business of mankind.” The ghost of his old business partner, Jacob Marley, visits him:
“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,’ faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.
Business!’ cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. “Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”
What a great reminder that revenues, profits and long hours must be tempered with kindness, compassion and charity.
Happy holidays and best wishes for a successful 2014.
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