People versus money
How did Scrooge change after his night with the ghosts? I would argue
that it was his focus that changed. On Christmas eve and in previous
years Scrooge had defined his life primarily in terms of money. As a
result he devalued people and his relationship with the rest of
humanity was broken.
Scrooge was not an evil man but he picked up the wrong messages and
lost his focus. Fortunately all was not lost. It was just necessary
for him to remember those events he had experienced which were life
giving and for someone to point out the harsh reality of some peoples
lives.
It seems to me that we live in a world where most of the people in
power seem to have adopted the attitude of Scrooge before his
'conversion'. Our leaders seem only to measure their success in terms
of financial indicators. I hope that they too can be converted to see
that it is people that matter and that focussing on money ultimately
only leads to misery.
We live in a world that has changed enormously over the past couple
of hundred year, the rate of change has accelerated over the past 20
– 30 years and continues to accelerate.
Industrialisation enabled mankind to produce all sorts of items with
a small fraction of the labour. The computer has enabled many
administrative jobs to be done quicker and the opportunity to carry
out analyses too complicated without it. Communication by way of TV
and the Internet has enabled most people in our world to be able to
know what is happening in other communities worldwide. We can travel
to most parts of the world within hours.
It is a different world – there is no need for most people to be
involved in growing food or being personally involved in making
products or obtaining raw materials. We have the increased ability to
treat most diseases and save the lives of those involved in traumatic
accidents.
The opportunities are tremendous, so when we look around do we see a
wonderful stress free world where most people are very happy? Could
the problem be that some of the wonderful technical advances over the
years have been used to give the wrong message. Maybe it is time to
make the voices of the Christmas Spirits heard!
There is still time for conversion. Remember the ghosts of the
Christmas Carol only took a single night to change Scrooge and make
him a happy man.
With love and Prayers
Chris
P.S.You might like to think about which photo you find most life-giving.
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