It's Christmas time!
The most famous fictional Christmas story by far is A Christmas Carol. There are so many adaptations of the story even the Muppets and Disney characters have been involved in Christmas Carol projects. The story has stood the test of time and the message is loud and clear about not only how we should act during the Christmas season but how we should live our lives all year long. It is a great message that everyone needs to learn.
As the story goes, Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by 4 ghosts on Christmas Eve. He is visited by his old partner in business Jacob Marley, as well as the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. By witnessing things from his past, present, and future, Scrooge sees the mistakes he has made and what the future will hold for his life if he doesn't make changes. Luckily Scrooge sees the light and is able to turn things around and become a better person.
I believe that just like Scrooge we are visited by ghosts. Ours are a little different but in some ways exactly the same. Our ghosts of the past come in the forms of memories, and thoughts that help to mold and shape who we are. Our ghosts of the past are the mistakes that we have made throughout life. I think we all look back at times and remember things that we said and did that impacted people and ourselves in negative ways. We think about times that people treated us badly and hurt us. We are able to look back on these ghosts and make positive changes and decisions in our present time based on what our ghost of the past shows us. We can think about those things and make sure that we don't make the same mistakes twice. We can be affected by our ghosts of the past just like Scrooge was.
Our ghosts of the present are those times when we pine over decisions we have made or things that we have said that adversely affected us or others. We may have hurt someone by putting them down or yelling at them. We may have skipped an important meeting or event and know that we made a mistake by doing so. These ghosts of the present haunt us and often cause us to have angst, lose sleep, or can even make us physically ill. These ghosts of the present help us to realize mistakes as they happen and allow us to make changes.
Our ghosts of the future are also known as the goals that we set. No one knows the future and we can't predict what exactly will happen but we can set goals and expectations of what we want to do with our lives. We have to have drive and ambition in life. We get that drive, passion, and ambition from our ghost of the future. The help us to form what we will look like tomorrow, five years from now, twenty years from now, and for the rest of our lives. Without our ghost of the future helping us along the way we do not have direction.
Scrooge's ghosts were specters that we could physically see in the story. They helped to show Scrooge why he acted the way he acts and what changes he needed to make and could make to be a better man. I hope that your ghosts help to guide you throughout life. I hope that you realize that they are here to help and are not something to be scared of even if they show us that we have done something bad or wrong in our past or in our present. These ghosts make us who we are and it is up to us to learn from them.
I hope you have a great holiday season and when you see A Christmas Carol on TV or DVD this Christmas just remember what I said about your ghosts and try to use all three to become a better person.
As tiny Tim so eloquently stated: "God bless us, everyone!"
Merry Christmas!
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