At this time of year we can sit back and reminisce about the last year, about where we went, what we did etc.

Me, like you probably, wear the chain we forged in life...we made it link by link, and yard by yard; we girded it of our own free will, and of our own free will we wear it.

Those were powerful words spoken by the ghost of Jacob Marley to Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens Christmas Carol.

Translation: We are responsible for our actions. We are responsible for the consequences of our actions. Everyone is. You’ve probably have talked about this in the past.

Marley understood it too late.

A Christmas Carol is the favourite movie of so many, either the ancient version,

starring Alastair Sim, or the less ancient version with George C. Scott.

The book, the movie, Dickens, sums it all up in a brilliant message.

One of the things about being a grown-up (using the term loosely) is the realization that material

things we hold are just stuff.

Eventually, it all gets put away, thrown away, given

away, or we leave it behind anyway.

As President Obama said to the grief-stricken citizens of Newtown, CT,

“You remind us of what matters.”

What matters really is how we treat each other.

How do we want to be treated?

Sometimes we witness dastardly altercations which haunt us for days after. Persons for really no understandably reason can be very curt and rude.

Their actions make us think we’ve just met the Grinch.

Maybe Mr. Grinch and his female driver blasted their car horn at you for being too slow in their opinion, which can be startling, of course.

Then this driver glares and stares, and he jumps out of his car. He is so angry. Saying things like we could have pulled up or stopped somewhere else as we were letting an elderly adult out of the auto.

It can be such an astounding display of impatience.

So we scratch our heads wondering if the pair would do the same if it were their elderly parent or grandparent.

So what do we do?

Why we wish him a Merry Christmas.

It is very interesting to see what distinguishes one chain-forger from the

next.

We all have the capacity for joy; we all have pain. We all need a little slack and a lot of love.

So let’s honour Christmas in our hearts, and try to keep it all the year.

We can live in the Past, the Present, and the Future.

The Spirits of all Three shall strive within us then.

Hesitate to shut out the lessons that the Christmas Carol message teaches!

That is the exuberant promise announced by Ebenezer Scrooge at the end of the story.

As the drama goes, he kept his promise so, why not us?

All the best 300 CLUB READERS & MERRY CHRISTMAS …..