Words for a Wednesday: A Christmas Carol

I don't know if you've realised, but CHRISTMAS IS TWO DAYS AWAY! And I'm very, very excited.

Charles Dickens, as evidenced by effectively the whole of A Christmas Carol, was also very excited about this. The entire book is filled with chestnuts and snow and cobbled streets: in fact, he is credited with creating the modern festive season (or, at least, the image of it) through that wordy concentration of Christmas spirit. In fact, I figured there was no better source to revive Words for a Wednesday than this epitome of Yuletide joy.

I told you I got excited around Christmas. But where was I?

The book itself was pretty easy to choose, seeing as we've been studying it at school. but choosing an individual quote? That proved to be a lot more tricky. I could have gone for the good old, traditional "God bless us, everyone." but everyone's heard of that. Personally, I prefer this one, which is part of the narrator's wry observations when describing Scrooge's nephew Fred and his Christmas celebrations, because it just makes good sense:

"There is nothing in this world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour."
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Think about it for a second. If two people were trying to convince me of something, I'm naturally inclined to go with the positive person, the one who makes me laugh or feel good about the world. This is because everyone wants to feel good about the world, and that's why a lot of us love Christmas.

I believe that we could all get a bit further in our lives if we remembered the absolute 'contagious' power of laughter. People like Scrooge are only grumpy because people aren't happy enough around them, and then people don't dare be happy around them because they're so grumpy. Negativity is a vicious cycle; we need to fight it with love, and sparkles, and . . . sorry.

I got a tiny bit My Little Pony there, so I need to say that I'm not a complete innocent. I don't have my head buried in the sand, and I know that there are terrible things going on in the world. Terrorism. Poverty. Abuse. But if we're positive about what humanity and compassion can do if we all think co-operatively and positively (and then do all we can to help instead of just thinking about it) then maybe, just maybe, we might be able to make this world a bit of a brighter place.

I leave you with this video, just proving how good humour between people can be the catalyst in building a better world. Hopefully, I've managed to make your day a good one, and remind you that we can all spread positivity with the help of Charles Dickens. Thanks Charlie *mic drop*.

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Labels: Words for a Wednesday