The Everyday Hope of a ‘Christmas Carol’ Is That the World Can Change Because We Can
At certain times, we find ourselves caught in a curious paradox: I want to do a meaningful thing, to be involved in this or that important occasion, yet it’s just so hard. How can an activity I care so much about still be so difficult — even to the point of being off-putting?
Depending on what’s at the forefront of your mind, this could sound like a description of your political or family life. There’s a presidential election coming next year (as you may have heard), and it is important: Why then is it so discouraging to think about doing your part? And soon you’ll be gathering with family for Christmas: You may want — even need — to do it, yet is there anything more stressful to contemplate sometimes?
In each case, the phenomenon is the same. Both situations come down to the possibility of change in a broken world. We want to believe that transformation, personal and social, is possible, yet we have a strong hunch it might not be. Is there anything more hopelessly gridlocked than contemporary politics and culture? And in the family setting, as we reenter our natural habitats, why would we think things could ever be different? All the old wounds, burdens, and complicated memories are there: My mother will of course expect me to do X, which I hate, and my cousins will certainly go into Y in their usual way. None of this will ever change. Can’t we just stay home this year for Christmas and sit out the election cycle?
Against such a backdrop, the undying popularity of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol makes sense. The little book has never been out of print since Dickens first wrote it in 1843, and as we know, it has been repeated, rehashed, and reimagined in countless films, TV adaptations, stage productions, public readings, parodies, and so forth.
These are signs of some essential good thing we desire, abiding and profound, that A Christmas Carol gets at. Part of that desirable good is wrapped up in its picture of human transformation. Inside the story, the drastic about-face undertaken by Ebenezer Scrooge seems possible, despite all the odds. Change, we think as we read or watch, can happen. A Christmas Carol strikes us as an expression of hope in a dark time. (Read more from “The Everyday Hope of a ‘Christmas Carol’ Is That the World Can Change Because We Can” HERE)
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