A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Every year, beginning a few days before Christmas, it is a tradition of mine to take an hour or two every night to read a bit of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. For me Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas if I didn't. It is, and has been, one of my absolute favourite stories! Not only is it a feel good story, but within it's pages is one of the most valuable lessons I have ever been fortunate enough to learn and understand. 'Tis a lesson I consider to be of the profoundest of importance.

The lesson I speak of takes place in the final moments of Scrooge's encounter with the Ghost of Christmas Present, at which point Scrooge comes face to face with two of Man's children, Want and Ignorance. Seeing as I haven't a hope in hell of recounting that moment of the story in any way that can be said to do it any justice, I have decided it would be better if I simply quoted that particular scene from the book; the lines of the excerpt in which their is the most to be learned from I've written in bold text. Here it is:

"Forgive me if I am not justified in what I ask," said Scrooge, looking intently at the Spirit's robe, "but I see something strange, and not belonging to yourself, protruding from your skirts. Is it a foot or a claw?"

"It might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it," was the Spirit's sorrowful reply. "Look here." From the foldings of it's robe it brought two children; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. They knelt down at it's feet, and clung upon the outside of it's garment.

"Oh. Man! look here. Look, look, down here!" exclaimed the Ghost.

They were a boy and a girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with it's freshest tints, a stale and shriveled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angles might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread.

Scrooge stared back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude.

"Spirit! Are they your's?" Scrooge could say no more.

"They are Man's," said the Spirit, looking down upon them. "And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!" cried the Spirit, stretching out his hand towards the city. "Slander those who tell it ye! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse! And bide the end!"

Out of all the books I have read over the years, no book has even come close to offering me a moment I love nearly as much as I love this moment from A Christmas Carol. It is by far my favourite book moment. It's lesson, though it was my dad who originally brought it to my attention while he and I were watching the movie version of A Christmas Carol staring Alistair Sims many years ago, has been invaluable to me. In fact, I would not be going too far in saying that it has had a profound impact on my life. Both my desire to be informed, and my unquenchable thirst for knowledge were born from this small scene in this wonderful story.

I can say with all honesty that those words have had a huge influence on the man I have become. Before I realised their importance, everything I feel important to-day wasn't important to me in the lest. Education and knowledge meant nothing to me. I could have cared less if I could be said to be informed or not; it simply wasn't important to me. But over time, as I got older and began to truly understand the message within those words, my perspective of what is important in this world and what isn't began to change dramatically. I cannot even begin to express how great an impact this tiny little scene has had on me.

That being said. If by some chance you have never taken up A Christmas Carol to read, I highly suggest you take the time to do so. Whether you are looking for a book steeped in meaning, or you're just looking for a great story, A Christmas Carol is most definitely worth your while.

'Tis the Season to be Jolly?

Well, Christmas is fast approaching yet again. It almost feels as if last Christmas had only just ended a short time ago, but of course that isn't the case. That aside, though, I've got to say that, at least for my family, the Christmas spirit seems to be a bit lacking this year. It just doesn't feel like Christmas this year. I'm not sure why, exactly, we just can't get into it all this year.

We've been late getting all our decorations up this year, and even when we did put them up our hearts just weren't in it. We haven't had the interest in putting everything up, and, unlike years past, when we have gotten around to putting things up, everything hasn't gone up in a single night; it's all gone up over many nights. It's strange. We can't seem to figure out what's different about this year.

I know I have things on my mind that are contributing to the season feeling less festive for me, but why is everybody else in my family feeling the same way? And there's a general feeling that others are feeling the same way outside our family, as well. There's snow on the ground, it's been quite chilly of late; everything has been very winter-like and absolutely perfect for strengthening and adding to the spirit of Christmas, and yet, it's just not happening. It's really, quite odd.

One possibility my parents and I have discussed is that perhaps Christmas is beginning to lose a lot of it's spirit. We all understand already that Christmas has changed for the worst in many respects during the late 20th century and during this first decade of the 21st century. Everything has become so much more about the material instead of family and spending time with those you love like Christmas used to be about, but perhaps even the material aspect of Christmas is beginning lose it's appeal, as well. Perhaps people are beginning to think differently about Christmas. Maybe amidst all the worthless material things everybody seems so focused on these days people are starting to think to themselves "Is this it? Is this all Christmas has to offer?"

To be perfectly honest that's how I've felt about Christmas for the last few years. I feel pleased with my gifts, and am grateful for them, but in the end I feel as if Christmas is supposed to be so much more. Particularly the last couple Christmases, during which I would have given up everything I had under the tree to be spend Christmas with my then girlfriend Zoë. And to be perfectly honest, I'd still give up all the materials of Christmas to go to Australia and spend the holidays with her despite the fact she and I cannot be said to be a couple anymore. To be with her in any capacity for Christmas would make me so very happy; it would make for a very meaningful Christmas for me, indeed.

One tends to expect so much of Christmas. Classic Christmas songs and movies ingrain in us the idea that Christmas is a time of togetherness and love, that it is a time to be happy and thankful for what we have regardless of the trials and challenges we may be facing in our lives, even regardless of whether or not we have much to call our own. Once upon a time even those who had very little were able to find some happiness during the Christmas season, but this obsession Western society has developed for the material above the immaterial and irreplaceable has definitely not improved Christmas, it's dampened it.

Don't get me wrong. It isn't my intent to attack Christmas in it's current form and foolishly try to make others feel differently about Christmas in hopes of achieving some sort of return to a past state of thinking in regards to Christmas. I am simply pondering if we as a society truly enjoys Christmas as we once did. I tend to believe we don't. We have transformed it into something so very material we have slowly been forgetting that Christmas can been so much more than what we've made it. And, to be honest, how can an occasion we've made to be so very material be special anymore? These days many of us continue to gain material things all year long. If your mobile phone you got for Christmas breaks in June, nine times out of ten you'll be getting a new one within a few weeks or months of breaking it.

As I said, material gain is something that continues for many of us, albeit slowly in some cases, all year round. That being the case, a Christmas focused on materials can never mean as much as it used to mean in the days it wasn't about material things at all, but about spending time with, and being thankful for, family and friends.

Another Step Made

Back in November I finally got around to booking an appointment with our local Motor Vehicle branch where I am to take my Road Test in hopes of getting my Drivers' License. Seeing as I had had my Learners' License for over a year and a half I was anxious to take the next step. So, one Thursday morning, my mum and I hopped in the car and made our way to the Motor Vehicle branch up town.

Before I went for my Road Test I took some time to drive around up town in hopes of familiarising myself with the area as best I could before taking the test as I hadn't had very much experience driving up town. Before I knew it it was time to take my test. The instructor had me check all my lights and such and off we went! Unfortunately, near the end of the test I made a couple mistakes and I ended up failing. The set back was annoying, but thankfully I was able to book another test for the next week.

The bright side of having failed the test on the first go was that I knew exactly what to expect the next time 'round. During the next week I took every opportunity I had to spend some time driving around up town. I still able to find too much time to do so, but seeing as I had spent a fair bit of time driving up there in all, I had gotten a handle on driving in the city centre, so I was much more confident for my second test.

During my second test I was convinced I was doing horribly. I messed up my first attempt at parallel parking but got it on the second go, and was unsure if I had turned my wheels the right what when I had parked on the hill. Both were things I'd have done perfectly fine if I hadn't been nervous. Thankfully I passed! It felt so good to finally have it out of the way and to know I'm now able to simply hop in the the car and go whenever I like. Well, as long as I have my parent's permission; it's their car, after all. ^_^

I'll have to spend another year in the Graduated License program here in New Brunswick before I've finally gotten my Class 5 Drivers' License, at which time I'll no longer have to worry about restrictions. Thankfully, given my age, I don't really have to worry about too many restrictions, anyway. At the moment the restrictions that apply to me are that I've got to keep a 0% Blood Alcohol Level and I'm only allowed to have three passengers in the vehicle I'm driving at any given time. Both restrictions aren't a problem for me in the least, so I'm not phased. I'm just happy to finally have my license! =)