The Wretches That We Are.

This year I have made a conscientious effort to read Charles Dickens after I had a conversation in which I loftily described something as 'Dickensian' and realised, internally cringing, I was being completely and utterly dishonest with myself and that my only real contact with Dickens had been the musical from 1968, 'Oliver!' and 'The Muppet Christmas Carol'. However upon reading A Christmas Carol I personally found it to be a charming story of personal redemption and transformation and I feel it can still speak volumes today. Dickens knew, deep down we are all potential Scrooges, we are prone to be dismissive or in denial of our own pasts and we can often view the future as an unfolding series of problems and worries rather than a place of potential and of joy. Our relationship, our personal tether to the past and future can make us grumpy, unkind and more seriously, unhappy. Ultimately for me it is also a story about remembering who we are, remembering our own personal narratives and finding peace with ourselves so that we can utilise the past, present and future to find like Scrooge does as he walks around seeing the world anew that;

“everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed that any walk— that anything— could give him so much happiness.”

The story ends as we know with Scrooge a truly changed man, far from the cynical, gloomy and hard hearted man he once was. It is his resolve to let the spirits of the past, present and future 'strive within' him that is the catalyst for his change. It is worth reflecting on the past, present and future in the story briefly to show the real power and weightiness of Dickens's message that is really almost lost under the clichés of Christmas time in the story. The message that we can change and that life can be a joy and that we can find happiness even within our broken and rubbish self's.

To the past then. The past is constantly with us and Dickens knew this. He also knew that our relationship with the past can be unhealthy. Scrooge's relationship with the past is unhealthy. Scrooge, it seems is in denial of the past and seems to have become a dismissive man as we see at the start of the story where he initially shrugs of seeing the face of Marley's ghost appear on the door knocker. He denies the memory of how Belle his one time girlfriend left him for his love of money, she even seems to know that he will disregard and repress the memory of their parting prophetically saying;

“You may— the memory of what is past half makes me hope you will— have pain in this. A very, very brief time, and you will dismiss the recollection of it, gladly, as an unprofitable dream, from which it happened well that you awoke.”

Memories can pop up or suddenly flood our minds when we see an image, get a whiff of an old familiar smell or hear a sound or a song. They can be heavy and quite over powering. Memories can make us anxious, laugh, make us cringe or blush however it is our acknowledgement of our past that is ultimately important for Dickens, the good and the bad of the past have equal value, no matter how they make us feel. Dickens completely understood the power of being honest with ourselves about our own pasts and more importantly the power of our memories and of not being dismissive of our emotions. Often I think perhaps we all go through life only experiencing the memories and recollections that 'come to us' that bubble up from the depths and pop in our minds however the past can be a potent and powerful tool in informing our behaviour and how we feel and how happy we are. We should perhaps not just let our memories just simply appear within us. We react to our memories and Dickens is suggesting that we should in fact nurture our reaction to our memories, our past and develop a stance where the bad and painful memories can in fact roar and cheer us on in life. We can strive to become humble and compassionate in the light of our failings and our grave mistakes. We can resolve to love more in the light of our past loneliness, no matter how bitter. The past and it's pains can undoubtedly give us drive and can spur us on and inspire us. The French have a brilliant little phrase, 'l'espirit de l'escalier' which as far as I know means 'stairway wit.' It relates to the sensation of thinking of a come back after an argument when it is all too late. It is that sense of looking back and wishing we had done something else that can provide us with a burning zeal for the present moment. That is the power of the past Dickens wrote of. Our memories, the past, can inform us daily so that the 'shadows of the things that have been' our failings, our pain, the good times and the heaven sent moments of our life can make us strive to be better people each day. Scrooge upon being brought face to face with the past again was, over powered and fell to his knees. In the words of the philosopher Seneca who wrote quite rightly in 'On the Shortness of Life,' those who forget the past, neglect the future.”

In the story the Ghost of Christmas Present come to Scrooge next, however I am going to the future, or the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Scrooge is shown by the spirit a harrowing image of the future in which Tiny Tim is dead and he see's a conversation of some of his business associates about who is going to attend his funeral in which one of them reflects “upon my life I don’t know of anybody to go to it.” Finally, he comes to see his own grave coming face to face with his mortality and the finite nature of his life. The future for Dickens can ultimately provide us with a healthy regard for that great leveler of all things-Death. It is not our death in itself that should inform us but a striving to over come death in how we will be remembered. Dickens's message isn't a stale, morbid depressing one that we are all going to die one day, his message is we have one life to live and need to make the most of it, it is inherently both optimistic and realistic. To quote Seneca again who Dickens would have nodded in agreement with, we “have all the fears of mortals and all the desires of immortals.”

And finally to the present. The here and now. The Ghost of Christmas Present then as we know also visits Scrooge. He visits Bob Cratchit's house and see's the poverty of his employee Bob Cratchit and his son Tiny Tim who is ill, however they cannot afford treatment for him on the meager wages paid by Scrooge. He also see's his nephews family's talking negatively about him. Scrooge is shown the dire nature of his current life and his negative affect on those in his life. Dickens is showing us how the past and the future can inform in changing for the better our present situations and transforming positively our very character. The past and the future can provide us with an unbending and unyielding will to engage positively and joyfully with the here and now. We should live with unbridled joy and happiness at the prospect and potential in this very moment for goodness, the wretches that we are.

Dickens can serve to give us a resolve in the here and now to be cheery, to be wholly joyful, to enjoy others and to make the most of every moment. Dickens is showing how powerful a healthy relationship with the past can be, how it can inform us, whisper to us in this moment, inspire and and drive us on that strive to be better people. The future and it's prospect can also be a source of constant joy and happiness to us if we regard is as a jewel like opportunity to live fully and be who we are, and be good and ultimately be brilliant to each other. The prospect of death is something to be recognised and something the can serve to spur us on, something that can be over come by our life and how we lived it. Coming up to 2013 perhaps the best new years resolution then may be  perhaps old Ebenezer Scrooge's resolve; “I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”