Are you a Scrooge? Good!
Let us all be like Scrooge!
I’m not kidding. I am calling on
the world to be scrooges. I think this
whole season needs modern day scrooges.
But wait, I know what you are thinking, no not the “Bah Humbug”
Scrooge. I want to be like the Scrooge
at the end of the famous tale:
“He became as good a friend, as
good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good
old city, town, or borough, in the good old world…”
His own heart laughed: and that was
quite enough for him…”
“and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if
any man alive possessed the knowledge.”
(Dickens, “A Christmas Carol, Stave 5)
We all know the
story how this grumpy cranky hateful miser was taken from sinner to saint in
the course of one evening. Yet when we
speak of Scrooge we usually mean someone who is not “in the Christmas spirit”,
or who embodies Ebenezer’s favorite line “Bah, Humbug”.
In a world filled
with the desire to get, and have, this feeling can be understandable. It’s almost as if we can allow others
greediness to bring us down as well. But
I realize there is more to it than that.
There is a line from movie that embodies another reason, “Christmas is a time when you look at your
life through a magnifying glass, and whatever you don't have feels
overwhelming.” (Mixed Nuts, 1992)
I think it is
funny how there are those people on both end s of the financial scale, (and all
throughout it) that, just like Scrooge at the beginning of the book, need to
find the Joy of Christmas. And understand,
I to have been there. I mean I usually
end up writing one of these blog posts around Christmas Eve. And depending on the year I have been in
various stages of either early scrooge to later scrooge. If my “Scrooge-O-Meter” was running right now
I would probably sit at a 5.
A 5 is a good
place to be. It means I am enjoying the
idea of Christmas, but have not done much yet to build my “Christmas
Cheer”.
I have a theory
here. And let’s see if you want to test
it with me. I believe that with all the
Christmas “The ribbons! The wrappings! The tags! And the tinsel! The trimmings!
The trappings!” (Seuss) With all of that, the highest we could even think to
reach on the Scrooge-O-Meter is maybe a 6 or perhaps a 7. In school terms that’s a C, or less! And even though Christmas starts with a C, a
C grade is no good on the Scrooge-O-Meter.
I only know of one way to reach the honor roll here. Service!
There were years when my whole Christmas was turned around,
not to mention my life, because of service.
Service can take so many forms.
From a little smile, or holding a door for someone, to much larger
acts. But to both the giver and the
receiver, if they will accept that service with an open heart, both leave
better.
21 years ago this year, my mother was concerned for me. I was a High School senior. And I was struggling. She did not know how to help me and I was not
very cooperative, and definitely was unwilling to open up to her. She and I found ourselves butting heads time
and again. She knew she needed to reach
me, somehow. But every time we talked I
would pull farther and farther away. She
recently wrote her personal history so I will let her tell you what she decided
to do:
“Andy was struggling with a lot of things in
his life. He didn't think he wanted to
go on a mission; he was rarely attending classes at school. He had an attitude
at home. He was now in his last year at Bonneville High School. I started
putting Andy's name in the temple often. That Christmas, I felt it was important
to give my family a gift, originally it was meant to help Andy. I wrote each
family member, including my parents a letter and hung the letter on the
Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. As I wrote the letters, I realize this was
something that was needed for each person as well as for me.” (Stories from my
Life, Gaye Johnson)
She found a way to not only serve me but our entire family. And that first letter was the beginning of a
road that eventually saved my life from the choices I was making. But those letters, (which she still continues
each year) has become one of the most cherished parts of the holiday for our
family.
The other day my wife went out to shovel our driveway with
snow continuing to fall in what seemed like an endless concourse. I have recently had surgery and couldn’t help
for fear of ruining the expert repair work done on my shoulder. I worried about her and was just feeling like
maybe I should go out and try to help with my one good hand, just as I was
feeling this way she walked back in the house announcing non-verbally that the
driveway was done. I asked “it’s
done?” She said that just as she got
started our neighbor came by with his snow blower and made quick work of the
job. Later that evening as we were at a
family party a different neighbor came by and did the same thing. And the following morning the first neighbor
was at it again. While trying to express
my gratitude to them both they shrugged it off and said it was nothing. It was not “nothing” to us.
And then there is the little gift that a young 1st
grader gave to an imposter Santa Claus (Me) two years ago, of a little pencil
eraser. To him it was probably
everything.
This is the test.
Find service and rate your Christmas spirit on the
“Scrooge-O-Meter”. A 1 is “Bah Humbug
Scrooge” and a 10 is “Merry Christmas Scrooge”.
Before you begin rate your current level. And as you do service report
back. I have set up a Facebook page.
Report your new rating and if you feel up to it, tell us
about what happened. Please leave out
names and only use the details that would be pertinent to understand your
story. This is not a bragging
situation. It’s a group to uplift each
other and encourage each other to uplift others.
And so we can be Scrooges, and proudly say that
we are. And maybe we can know that in
our hearts what that truly means.
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