School for Sinners
Every Christmas Eve, that sinner, Ebenezer Scrooge, teaches me his lessons. Early on Christmas day, he reiterates them. Scrooge is the best School for Sinners there is. Sometimes, the lessons are learned straight from the writer's pen. Instead of the movies, I will read Dickens’ gem of a novella. It is a quick read, actually. But one needs to read it over slowly, and re-read portions. Especially as we grow older, and we have racked up our own sins, well, Scrooge's redemption can become our own.
The two movie versions I find to be true to the spirit of Scrooge, is the 1951 production, starring Alistair Sims, and the 1984 version, with George C. Scott. Scott has the scruffy voice, wherein you hear Scrooge's pain. Sims has the manner of speech, oh-so-British, that packs an emotional wallop, which cracks your heart wide open. I always cry when Sims' Scrooge says that line about being a blind old fool with no eyes to see with. We are all, each and everyone one of us, guilty of that particular sin.
Charles Dickens is quite the teacher. He had eyes to see with, and his lessons are ever so pertinent. A Christmas Carol, I suggest, belongs right up there with the Bible, to be read over the Christmas season. Well, actually, to be read at any time. Christmas, coming as it does with the new year right behind it, is a time of renewal. The most stalwart atheist can understand that one needs to renew. Our modern world has divided up time quite nicely, so that we can plan our introspection on the calendar. People of the Book take stock at various times: Jews have their Rosh Hosannah/Yom Kippur, in the fall; Christians in the winter with Christmas/New Year; and Muslims have their Ramadan, which varies according to the Islamic calendar.
The People of the Book accept the fact that they have forged "ponderous chains" for themselves. And, it is these chains that can drag us to a lonely death. Which is Lesson 1 in A Christmas Carol. That lesson is this: we are responsible. We do this to ourselves. We make the decisions to eschew people, and to focus on the material life.
No, your animal does not count as a replacement for the people you need in your life. And yes, the lockdown was the worst solution for the virus, because it forced us to be even more alone. Forcing individuals to die alone is a huge sin, and now we will field a whole new bunch of Scrooges in this world, who are racked with inner pain and guilt.
We now call that inner pain, "mental illness." Stupid label. It is emotional pain, inner wounds, that are the real issue. That is the Second Lesson. Scrooge's inner torment comes from his father. The elder Scrooge suffered the pain of losing his wife in childbirth. Ebenezer's mother died, and he, Ebenezer, lived. The father never forgave the poor boy for his existence. He shunned him. We call such men a "hard man." No. He was weak. In real terms, he was a wounded animal that had slinked away in the corner of life, to lick his never healing wounds. Whenever his son would approach, he would hiss at him, strike out at him, and, finally, sent the boy away so that he, the father, would not have to deal with it. He turned Fan, his daughter, and Ebenezer's sister, into his female. Fan is an excellent young woman. She fights for her brother, until the father relents and brings him home.
Ebenezer is on his way to a good life, except his savior, Fan, dies in childbirth. Now he inherits his father's sin. He, too, eschews love. Because when one shuns people, one shuns love itself. Including the love of one's self. Good conduct comes from those who have a balanced view of life, who take care of themselves, who are self disciplined, and understand that to care for others is the road to a life well lived.
The life well lived is lived by those who make themselves useful to others. This is not about loving all without reservation. This is about choosing people, keeping a family, having emotional bonds, and working well with others. Because the lesson here is not about the gooey stuff, but the practical. Humans cannot live alone. They cannot do it physically, or emotionally.
Scrooge is useful in that he does provide employment. But he is manipulating to those he employs. Bob Cratich, Mrs. Dilber, and those he does business with, he under pays and over charges. In a phrase, he is out of balance. And that is what mental illness is about.
I suggest mental illness is about sin. And sin is when we do dumb stuff. Dickens warned us about ignorance, when the Ghost of Christmas Present, lifted the skirt of his gown to reveal those two children: Want, the girl, and Ignorance, the boy. Of the two, he said, “Fear this boy.” Here is the lesson, then, that ignorance is the root of all sin. Not money, but stupidity, pig headedness, and resistance to the love of others.
Too many have read Dickens on a superficial level. He is anything but. Dickens is complex, a novelist who wrote in archetypes, not stereotypes. His genius is painting those archetypes in stark hues that can be understood by a cross section of society. Thus Ebenezer shows us how the wounded can be seen as the evil, hard hearted capitalist. Not the self-hating man, with a head for business. It is his wounds that turned him sinner. The counterpart, a wounded man without the ability to make his way in life, is dangerous to himself, and us. Both represent out-of-balance individuals. Both need to save themselves. Because we are not gods, we cannot save them. We can offer ourselves as a way out, pointing them to the door only they can open. But to think we can save people is arrogance. A do-gooder is a narcissist to some degree. It is the spirits, the gods, if you will, that have the wherewithal to help Ebenezer retrospect with a purpose.
This now brings us to the third lesson in this timeless tale. How do we gain that salvation? In this story, Scrooge must face his pain, head on. The gift his former partner gave him is priceless, because he is then forced to look at his life, to go back and feel the loneliness, the rejection, the uplifting of Mr. Fezziwig, the tragedy of Fan’s death, and the bigger tragedy of rejecting his nephew, plus the fantastic partnership of Jacob Marley. All those emotions, tumbled within, and without, cracked open his heart. The greatest portion of this gift was to hear what the people he dealt with on a daily basis, thought of him. And that left him wanting. What was left of his arrogance of pain was smashed away when he saw his own grave. That shell that encased his empty heart, fell away. To live life, he knew, he would have to fill it with some joy. A joy that comes only with the love of, and for, others.
In this day and age, there are many Ebenezers among us. I don’t have to tell you that. Christmas can be one of the most depressing times for such people. I suggest those who are depressed by it, could use a visit from those three spirits. I already know they could use some company. As my fellow Toastmaster, Jim, always says to us, “You are never alone. Just call one of us…”
Jim is so right.
Christmas is about taking time for others. That is the real gift, the real reason for the season. We forget that, because we are modern people, and modern people can be materialistic. We think it is about the exchange of things. No. It is about sharing our time. It is about appreciating others. It is about seeing people, looking right through them. And forgiving them, and hoping they forgive us, for those trespasses we have committed. Ebenezer admits this, when he asks his nephew’s wife to forgive him, for, “…having no eyes to see with…”
Each person wants to be seen. And acknowledged. It is the real reason for the season. And illustrated so well in the Sims’ version, when Ebenezer has his talk with his housekeeper, Mrs. Dilber, on the stairs. What a moment! When he finally values her for her work, and tells her, shows her, how much she is worth, why it doesn’t get any better than that.
Do we all need to come face-to-face with our own death before we can come to grips with how we are living our life? Think of it this way; to come to face our inner wounds, and deal with them, is to die a death. And live again. That is the real second chance at life, to bury the past, and renew.
The overall lesson of A Christmas Carol is this: A part of this life, is losing people. Best to enjoy their company whilst they, and you, are here.