7 ACT: with purpose
Charles Dickens' classic novel A Christmas Carol, published in 1843, tells the story of a mean-spirited old man, Ebenezer Scrooge. It's Christmas Eve and Scrooge is visited by the ghost of Jacob Marley, his former business partner, who warns him to change his miserly, tight-fisted ways or suffer the consequences. He tells Scrooge, ‘No space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunity misused.'
‘Bah, humbug,' retorts Scrooge, who pays little heed to the warning, so he continues to be haunted. First, the Ghost of Christmas Past appears to remind him of his early life. Scrooge is forced to revisit the scene where his then fiancée, Belle, dumps him because he loves money more than her. ‘I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one,' she admonishes him, ‘until the master passion, gain, engrosses you.'
Next, the Ghost of Christmas Present appears to help him see that joy isn't about money, but about love, friendship and family. Finally, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come offers him a glimpse of the future: if he doesn't change his ways, Scrooge will die a sad, lonely and despised man.
These revelations of his character, actions and priorities and the lens through which he views the world shake him so deeply it compels him to change his ways. On Christmas morning Scrooge wakes up determined to be a better, kinder man.
While you're not going to dress up in a white sheet and rattle chains at night, your task is essentially the same as that of ...
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