God bless us, everyone.

 My son, Christopher, was the only person I knew who had actually read Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  I am happy to announce that I, too, have now read it.  The story is familiar to nearly everyone, since it has been adapted to film with such persons as Jim Carrey and Patrick Stewart taking the lead role,as well as a bunch of British guys I can't name off the top of my head.
   And a lot of people can quote Marley's ghost saying, 'Mankind was my business.'  But the novel is a bit harsher than just that.  The Spirit of Christmas Present speaks thus:

"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.
   Yet, when speaking of Scrooge, his nephew says:

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.

Thanks to my Son who inspired me to read A Christmas Carol.  I encourage you all to read it.  It is short and can be found online in several free versions.

And may the Spirit of Christmas Present descend on you this Holiday season.  God bless us, everyone.

~Eric Roberts
feeling warm in Guyana