"How long since you danced, Ebeneezer?"

Before I say anything else, I have a couple of disclaimers.
1. I actually don't like Scrooge, or A Christmas Carol, or Ebeneezer, or essentially any film version of Charles Dickens' classic novella, which I sadly have not read. I know the story ends well and it has a great message and it's brilliant and all, but 90% of it just makes me sad and stressed out. So writing a blog about it is kind of hypocritical.
2. I am a terrible dancer, therefore I avoid dancing where people can see me, so that's slightly hypocritical too.

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In case you don't know the story, A Christmas Carol is about a greedy and intentionally miserable man named Ebeneezer Scrooge, his life (or lack of one), and his wake up call, which comes in the form of a dream. In the dream, he meets three spirits: The Ghost of Christmas Past (which usually takes the form of a child or scary looking woman with white hair), the Ghost of Christmas Present (sometimes a fat and jolly man in a green velvety robe), and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (some sort of ring wraith, minus the ring part). The dream consists of the spirits taking Ebeneezer on a tour of his life.

The line I quoted in the title of this blog is said by the Ghost of Christmas Past when she takes Ebeneezer back to his youth and reminds him of the girl he was in love with, the girl that made him want to dance. She was also the girl that eventually left him because he loved his work and his money more than he loved her. In her asking "How long since you danced?" she is also asking if he's content with the life he chose, if he has any regrets. At that point, he is still stubborn, and insists that his way was the best way.

But by the end of the journey, the spirits have given him a radically different perspective of the way he has lived his life, and just when he begins to think that he has wasted his entire existence and will die, he awakes from the dream on his knees, weeping. The new perspective so changes him that he immediately begins to do everything, absolutely everything, differently. He becomes a new man. A gracious employer, a generous citizen, a loving uncle.

And I'm sitting here thinking: I never want to be that man.

There are a number of reasons for saying that, including the fact that he has a terrible nose and a receding hairline. My main reason, however, is that it took a life-shattering dream in his old age to make him realize just how beautiful and meaningful and enjoyable life is, especially when we share it with other people. He had ignored all the things that could have rescued him until he had wasted decades of his time, and it was almost too late.

I hope and pray that I never get to that point.

Which is why I'm so grateful for the little wake up calls, the small rescues, and keep me and you and everyone who has their eyes open from becoming an Ebeneezer Scrooge. They're life savers thrown out to save us from the sea of ourselves.

I've been blessed enough to have a bunch of those God-sent life savers thrown my way. Of course, sometimes they've hit me in the head instead of landing gracefully within arm's reach, but they did their work. I'm glad, because without them I would be a hopelessly sarcastic cynical wreck incapable of sincerity or maintaining relationships.

Those life savers can take many different forms, you know. Some are more obvious than others. If you're too busy looking up, or down, or spend a lot of time staring at yourself in the mirror, you'll miss them. But you need them, and I need them. We need those moments that make us stop moving and really think. Because if we don't keep our eyes open, it's way too easy to get distracted from the things that actually matter.

These are the first things that came to mind. 

Crying over lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Countless cups of tea or coffee that have gone cold because you're too busy talking to drink. Someone looking you straight in the eyes and saying "I accept you." Impromptu snowball fights. 4am trips to Shari's in formal wear. Good books. A week in the middle of nowhere with hundreds of elementary school kids. Babies. Lady GaGa dance parties. Notes stuck under windshield wipers and written with love. Wedding anniversaries. Hugs.

And Christmas.

I guess what's coming next is a benediction of sorts.

Because my point in all this rambling is to wish you a Merry Christmas, and a happy New Year, and that you will see and receive whatever is coming to your rescue.