A Toast To Scrooge!

Here’s to Scrooge!

Huh, whassat, you say? Honor a hard-hearted, grouchy old miser? Toast he who thought so little of good works, aid to the poor and such that he saw the death of starving souls as a Malthusian economic benefit that would “decrease the surplus population?” Humbug on that!

Were this Scrooge’s whole story our revulsion at the mere mention of his name would be duly warranted. But it’s not. Indeed the reason that “A Christmas Carol” is one of literature’s most popular tales is the joyous redemption and salvation of Ebenezer Scrooge.

His turnabout was so complete that Scrooge “became as good a friend, as good a teacher, and as good a man, as any person could hope to know,” a man who honored Christmas in his heart all the year.

So why is it that we continue to greet his name with a sneering contempt, forever condemning Dickens’s creation as a cold, callous curmudgeon despite his incredible conversion?

Is it that we tend to see mainly the negative in life and not really trust in the possibility of miracles? Does it betray a latent tendency we have to pre-judge, label and pigeonhole the “other” in a way that smothers the potential for good?

On one end of that spectrum are those everyday acquaintances with whom we may give short shrift, letting the negative we see cloud what good that is there. At the extreme are death row prisoners condemned to a fate worse than their execution: man’s judgment of their utter unredeemability.

Similarly, in today’s red/blue divide faith and hope seem at times to be flying the white flag of surrender. Each side so certain of the righteousness of their cause and the stupidity of the other’s. Even “Merry Christmas” has, for some, become a rallying call of in-your-face defiance instead of the heartfelt expression of warmth and goodwill that Jesus would want.

Fact is, like Scrooge, we may all be wrong in our assumptions. Scrooge was so sure of the rightness of his harsh ways that his discovery of how wrong he had been, and the harm caused thereby, devastated him. The thought that this was irreversible was unbearable.

So imagine his joy upon discovering that he had a second chance to correct his past and make a better future. All that mattered to Scrooge, given this new lease on life, was to do good and to love his fellow man. Hard economic theory melted in the warm glow of Scrooge’s newfound charity.

Others’ deficiencies mattered not to Scrooge, only what HE could do to keep Christmas in his heart every day of every year. No wonder he was “as light as a feather, as happy as an angel and as merry as a schoolboy.”

At heart what we celebrate in Christmas is the essence of Dickens’s masterpiece: the Good News of salvation and redemption for all humanity! Comes the Prince of Peace with tidings of gladness, of joy, and of the hope that humankind will climb the higher path, collectively and individually.

God’s greatest gift, whether seen or not, is ever present. Perhaps it will take a Scrooge-like Spiritual visit to open our eyes. Or maybe like a wondrous tot on Christmas morn we can grasp with joy what is already there! Merry Christmas to all, and a Happy New Year!

Moo on! Richard F. Dawahare December 24, 2004