Scrooge Is My (Existential) Hero - Part 2

So how does Ebenezer Scrooge go through such a dramatic transformation? As we looked at in the previous post, he is first taken on a review of his past. He sees both how he was able to experience joy and connection in the past, and how his many losses left him with a heap of pain that he now tries to protect against. It’s easier to empathize with him after getting this larger perspective on his life, and I wonder if he finds it easier to empathize with himself too.

By the time Scrooge is taken on an exploration of his present, both his heart and his senses seem to be more open. He meets the Ghost of Christmas Present less hardened, and more timid. He’s taking in more sights, sounds, smells, as Dickens describes Scrooge’s experiences of the present with vivid detail.

This present openness is essential for healing and for change. Somehow we have to be shocked out of the closed-down, shut-off, repetitive distraction of our own pain and the numbing protections we’ve developed to cope with it. This is a hard sell, as it is very uncomfortable, but it also creates the capacity to take in new information that allows change to happen.

With Scrooge’s new openness, he’s finally able to take in his present in ways he wasn’t able to before. With the Ghost of Christmas Present as a guide, he can see that his employee Bob Cratchit is capable of relationship, joy, and compassion even toward Scrooge, despite having very little resources, an incredibly ill son, and being treated poorly by Scrooge. He can see example after example of people working in cold and lonely circumstances, like a lighthouse or a ship out on the ocean, still capable of inner warmth and joy. And he can see that his own nephew is eager to connect with him and holds no ill will with him, despite Scrooge’s repeated rejection.

Revisiting the present with an open heart and open senses, Scrooge finds a new desire to connect and a new capacity to empathize with others.

It seems to be a two-sided coin: Numbing our pain also numbs our senses and ironically closes us off to experiencing the present in new ways that can heal our pain.  Revisiting and actually feeling the pain of the past is, of course, painful - but by actually feeling that pain, we get back our capacity to feel. And as a result, our open, though timid, heart and open senses become the new lens through which we see the present. 

And that present may pleasantly and poignantly surprise us, as it did for Scrooge.

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