No Subject

[Unregistered]

No doubt a superb writer. <br><br>The Christmas Carol is rather boring as it is nothing but an "Infomercial" paid for by the paper and the advertising merchants. <br><br>Crachitt had his own house and enough to purchase a goose. He was asked to work on Christmas Eve day as I have done many times. Where would we be if our police, firemen and doctors followed the ridiculous dogma esposed in this tiresome, non-relevant tome? Eb only becomes acceptable when he gives away his money. Duh. Dicken's father was obviously a wasterel and Chucky baby was following in his footsteps wanting others to give to him<br><br>It was designed to pull money out of the pockets of all who read it and refused to think. It has done a marvelous job but is really ready for the trash heap.

[Smiling Carcass]

I am sorry, unregistered but I must disagree with you about A Christmas Carol. It is probably too late to post a reply, but here goes. It is obvious from the story that Bob Cratchit may well be more fortunate than others of the era, but was by no means a wealthy man and was making the best of what they could afford. I don’t believe the book refers anywhere to him either renting or owning his house. So that is debatable. And yes, many people do work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but they do not do it because of any mercenary consideration or sense of lack of Christmas spirit. They merely understand that their job requires this; it is part of their employment contract and they accept the situation. Remember, of course they get the time in lieu which I am sure Mr. Scrooge would not have offered Bob! And anyway, if I remember correctly, Bob asked for Christmas Day off, not Christmas Eve. And as for Ebenezer giving away his money, it is not that simple. He chose, after the warnings from the spirits, to save his soul by sharing his accumulated wealth, which was more than he could have spent on himself and received personal gratification for doing so. It was in no way one-sided.

The book is as relevant today as then because commerce and capitalism are taking us back to an era where everything has its price, and nobody wants to do anything for anybody other than for commercial reward. And I interpret the story to mean that it was Christmas that brought Marley and his fellow spirits to Ebenezer, but that the love of ones fellow man should be continued throughout the year.

Too many people today believe that Christmas is all about giving and getting presents and getting enough time off work to get to all the parties etc and have time to recover before returning to ‘the grind’. But even myself, as a non Christian believes it is about sacrifice. The sacrifice of parents giving the best (not always the biggest and most expensive) presents they can afford to their children. Giving up Christmas Eve and Day to prepare and cook the food for the Christmas feast. I am a male single parent, have been for 13 years and know how hard getting Christmas dinner ready for us is!

I know we interpret films and books according to our own beliefs and situation, but if you really mean what you say, the best I can wish you is that something this year touches you and allows you to reform your opinion.

[Galaxy_crazy]

Smiling, I believe your points are well expressed (funny name, by the way -- whoever said 'dead men tell no tales'?).

In addition, it seems that "Unregistered" may have been registering (if you'll pardon the play on words) a subtle complaint about working on a holiday. If this is the case, and he / she feels their own position to somehow diminish the validity of the story's message, perhaps "Unregistered" does not understand the value, in a general sense, of 'change of heart'.

Move up one notch to a slightly broader scale and that's what the story seems to be about.

[Smiling Carcass]

Thanks for the vote, Galaxy_crazy. If I remember correctly, I somehow came to this forum/page and only registered because I felt I had to reply to unregistered.
I do things like this quite a lot!
By the way, the Smiling Carcass came about because I was trying to find an email address that wasn't one of the paul1843@ or similar. I like to be original, and I think this hits the spot!