Inspiration from the past - the "Ghost of Christmas Past"

Hi Mom,

Happy Tuesday. I’m looking forward to the day going by quickly because we are attending a community Christmas choral concert (there’s an alliterative sentence fragment).  A couple of Brien’s good friends are involved and they have invited us to attend. I miss being part of a choir. Our ward is so small and so they don’t have a regular ward choir. They only put it together for special events and I never seem to hear about when practices are. Announcements don’t often make it down to the primary. Oh well. I’m a choir of 1 in my car to and from work most days when I’m not letting myself get sucked into listening to Sean Hannity. I really need to stop doing that because I’m becoming too much like Dad and obsessing about the government.

I hope it’s ok with you that I’ve been talking so much about A Christmas Carol. Just seeing it again has opened up the flood gates of my mind. There are so many allusions to different human behaviors and so much we can learn from Scrooge’s transformation.

Last Saturday as I was watching the play and Scrooge was being visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past my mind was drawn inexplicably to Dad. I’m not implying that Dad was a Scrooge at least not monetarily. He could sometimes be an emotional Scrooge. I know that was often not in his ability to control. He like Scrooge was a product of his life experiences. While Dad never became a miser, there are some striking similarities. Perhaps the biggest one is that the easiest way to soften Dad’s heart and get him back in touch with his emotional self was to get him talking about his beloved stories from the past. I believe that the mark of a good story teller is that you have to live the telling of the story. Dad came alive in a way that defies description when he was being nostalgic and leading us on a journey into his past. I think that is what each of his children miss the most, hearing Dad tell one of his stories and seeing him transformed into a kid again as he shared that experience with us. I think what each of us mourn the most is that our children won’t have that experience. I’m so grateful that even though we lived quite a distance away, you and Dad always made the effort to be involved in Brien and Wesley’s life. They, more than any of the grandchildren, were blessed to hear many of Grandpa’s stories. I know that is one of the things Wesley is struggling with, the fact that he can’t just call Dad anymore and talk to him. For some reason Wes could talk to Dad better than he could talk to me or Dane.

Back to the transformation of Scrooge...

The hard-hearted, grasping Scrooge found strength and solace in the social philosophy of his day, which thought of the poor as deserving their sorry fate and even as being a threat to the well-being of the world. When, in Chapter 1, Scrooge rejects the request of the two “portly gentlemen” for a charitable gift for the poor, he suggests that the poor might die “and decrease the surplus population.” Here Scrooge echoes the views of the influential economist Thomas Malthus, whose theories would have allowed a man like Scrooge to defend his greed and lack of compassion for the poor.

So, what made Scrooge Scrooge? You start with an unhappy childhood: mother dead; cruel father; sent away from home to overly strict boarding schools; no friends among classmates; only solace in books; the only student not going home for Christmas. Then you throw in a strong fear of poverty along with a growing love for the safety represented by material gain. Add the rejection of a fiancée. And top it off with popular philosophy that praises acquisitiveness and derides the poor as deserving of their condition. What have you got? Scrooge! Scrooge: whose heart has been squeezed by the impact of a sorry life and his own sorry choices. Scrooge: who squeezes his hand around the only thing that gives him meaning and security in life . . . money.

So if this explains, at least in part, how Scrooge became Scrooge, now the question is: What caused Scrooge to change?

The Ghost of Christmas Past is a strange apparition who explains the purpose of his visit as Scrooge’s “welfare,” or, indeed, his “reclamation.” This process begins with an easily overlooked but crucial interchange between Scrooge and the Spirit. When the Spirit clasps Scrooge’s arm and begins to lead him towards the window, Scrooge resists, saying, “I am a mortal, and liable to fall.” Notice carefully the spirit’s response: “‘Bear but a touch of my hand there,’ said the Spirit, laying it upon his heart, ‘and you shall be upheld in more than this!’” The Spirit touches, not just Scrooge’s arm, but also his heart. And Scrooge would be upheld, not only in his supernatural travels, but also in the opening of his tightly-shut heart.

Then the Spirit magically transports Scrooge to the place where he spent his boyhood. The sights and sounds of his youth begin to soften Scrooge’s heart. Yet the Spirit has only started his transforming effort. Next Scrooge sees his fellow students merrily on their way to celebrate Christmas. The school is deserted, all except for one boy, “a solitary child, neglected by his friends.” It is Scrooge, of course, left alone with nothing to cheer him but the characters from his beloved books. The old man weeps bitter tears for the child he once was. For the first time in a long time, he feels compassion for someone else, even if that “someone else” is really just an earlier version of himself. Yet, as he feels for himself as a boy, Scrooge also shows the first glimmer of care for another human being as well: “There was a boy singing a Christmas Carol at my door last night,” he explains to the ghost. “I should like to have given him something.” Ironically, Scrooge had almost given that boy something – a rap with his ruler!

On some Christmas Eve following the time of his isolation in the school, the young Scrooge receives a visit from Fan, his beloved sister. (Dickens himself had a sister named Fanny.) Fan informs Ebenezer that he can come home for Christmas. (Years later, Fan dies, leaving behind a child-the nephew Fred whom Scrooge had so badly mistreated only hours before.)

After this tender family scene, the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge to the warehouse of Old Fezziwig, to whom Scrooge had once been apprenticed. The mere sight of his generous old master brings joy to Scrooge’s heart. Then, as he witnesses a grand Christmas party, “Scrooge had acted like a man out of his wits. His heart and soul were in the scene. . . .” When the Ghost challenges Fezziwig’s actions, Scrooge defends his generosity. And, once again, this begins to be translated into a desire to be generous in his own life: “I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now,” Scrooge says.

The next scene is not a happy one for Scrooge. He watches as his fiancée, Belle, breaks their engagement, recognizing that Ebenezer loves money far more than he loves her. Then the Ghost shows Scrooge one more scene, in which Belle is much older, with a husband and daughter. Their family love stands in stark contrast to Scrooge’s own.

The Ghost of Christmas past, beyond conjuring up within Scrooge feelings of nostalgia and celebration, helps him see – and feel – the harsh contrast between love and loneliness. Love figures prominently in his boyhood encounter with his sister Fan. Remembering her love for him – and his for her – makes Scrooge’s grouchy rejection of Fan’s son Fred all the more grievous. Moreover, the scenes featuring Belle press into Scrooge’s heart the lack of love in his own life. Where Scrooge had once felt genuine love (from and for Fan, from and for Belle), he had chosen to cut himself off from this love, whether with his former fiancée, or with Fred. He realizes he has made poor choices for his life, and he starts to wish for something better.

It’s interesting to me that Scrooge doesn’t reject all of this as a bunch of maudlin nonsense. What, I wonder, gives him the ability to see, really to see, his life as it truly was? And what gives him the ability to feel emotions that had for so long been absent from his heart? Yes, seeing himself as a hurting young boy might very well have opened Scrooge’s heart a bit. But this might not have happened were in not for the earlier intervention of the Spirit, when he touched Scrooge’s heart and promised that he would be “upheld” in more than just their other-worldly travel.

What can transform a stony heart? For Charles Dickens, the answer has several layers. Nostalgia for the past seems to help. Looking afresh at one’s life makes a difference. Supernatural assistance contributes. But, at the core, love changes people. Love, not of the romantic sort, but of the compassionate, self-giving variety, transforms hearts.

I think mankind has a tendency toward holding grudges. Holding grudges against other people and ourselves. We let ourselves be dragged down by insults, real and imagined. We allow ourselves to get offended which saddles us with heavy emotional baggage. We are puffed up in pride. 

The proud make every man their adversary by pitting their intellects, opinions, works, wealth, talents, or any other worldly measuring device against others. In the words of C.S. Lewis: "Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone."

God will have a humble people. Either we can choose to be humble or we can be compelled to be humble. Alma said in Alma 32:16: "Blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble."

Scrooge was compelled by the Ghost of Christmas Past to humble himself and realize that his past was far from the bleak existence that he exuded. His past had moments of love and joy. Yes he had his trials. But, it was the choices he made that built the wall of pride and misery around his heart.

It's not always easy to come to terms with our past (I have let my past dictate so much of my future). But when we look at those experiences through the prism of Jesus Christ we can see and appreciate that is was those experiences that have made us who we are for good or for ill. Looking back can help us to cultivate an attitude of gratitude for all things and can give us the motivation we need to repent.

When the Ghost of Christmas Past touches Scrooge on his arm and his heart what he is really doing is opening his heart to the Light of Christ. Revelations 3:20: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Scrooge's heart is reawakened to HOPE.

President Uchtdorf said recently in an article he wrote for the New Era, "The things we hope for lead us to faith, while the things we hope in lead us to charity. The three qualities--faith, hope, and charity--working together, grounded on the truth and light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, lead us to abound in good works."

It is that light and hope that we all must nurture not just at Christmas time but all through the year. It is Hope in Jesus Christ that pierces all darkness, softens all sorrow, and gladdens every heart. Christ is the REASON for the SEASON.

Merry Christmas!

Till Tomorrow,
Holley