From the Pen of Charles Dickens

For many years I transformed my classroom into a semblance of Victorian England and hosted a Fezziwig party to bring life to the words penned by Charles Dickens in 1843. His masterpiece. “A Christmas Carol.”

Dickens challenged all of us through the conversation between Scrooge and his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley. What are our priorities?

When Scrooge remarks that Jacob was “always a good man of business,”

Marley’s Ghost roars:

“Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

The power of that hyperbole shook me every year.

“A drop of water in the . . .ocean of my business.”

People. Not money.

Tolerance. Not exclusion.

Good will. Not hate.

As I close today, I wish you a holiday season of love with family and friends and close with the words of my sister, Dianne, gone for over a decade now.

“Be well, and be kind.”