I realize that the story of the Grinch and the classic A Christmas Carol are works of fiction but they do speak to how we chose to live our lives. In Ebenezer’s case it wasn’t a matter of being an evil miser but more personal experiences that form how he sees the world and how he sees himself. I believe it is perspective and sometimes we need to step out of our circumstance and realize what our lives and our legacy truly mean. There is a wonderful truth to the saying, “you can’t take it with you”, and so while we’re here we need to give to others, not because the government wants us to, not because it is popular among our piers but because it brings us joy. It brings joy to give freely in very subtle ways-the liberation of our material inclinations, the feeling of touching others and making others feel special and the reward of feeling free of material attachments.

Another character that strives to teach us about ourselves is the Grinch-again a creature of sorts that others have shunned, either in reality or from the Grinch’s’ perspective of how he is seen in Whoville. The resentment and the envy of this wonderful season the Grinch attempts to destroy for all of Whoville and yet he hears them sing in the morning, even after all they have lost. No one can steal Christmas or the seasons from anyone-we give it away freely. We change the way see holidays, we alienate ourselves and create the season from our perspective, now I don’t think we can grow our hearts no more than they shrink from lack of use but I do think we can guard them to the point that they don’t feel anything and what you lose compared to what you keep safe is a shameful trade at best. To me this safety is like a wounded leg that you keep protected, it never heals and it never really hurts but you also never walk again.

We don’t just grow old and bitter-we chose to see only the things around us that seem to hurt us or make us feel less. We can chose to find peace or we can complain because there is none.