Merry Christmas from Vivian & Eric in Guyana
[Shots on the street are from 24 December; we worshiped at St. Thomas, LochAber on 25 December]
"There are some upon this earth of yours," returned the Spirit, "who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us."While Scrooge's greed seems to be motivated by the desperate need not to be poor, those mentioned above are more like some today - if I may be so bold - who are willing to do many things in the name of progress or of helping the poor or of returning to traditional values, when their actions look more like selfishness and bigotry. It seems to me that helping the poor by removing the safety net that was built by a previous generation is very little help indeed. Identifying poverty as a moral failing ['those lazy bums'] seems not to fit with reality very well. Bob Cratchit was poor for all his hard work, and there were poorer still who worked just as hard - and so it is today.
I am sorry for him; I couldn't be angry with him if I tried. Who suffers by his ill whims! Himself, always. Here, he takes it into his head to dislike us, and he won't come and dine with us. What's the consequence? He don't lose much of a dinner.So we go on, making merry in our various ways, yet remembering those two children - Ignorance and Want - and trying as we can to make their lives a bit better.