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Every Christmas I reread Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”
I love seeing a grumpy, selfish, mean man being transformed into someone who is kind, generous and remorseful.
W
hile I do believe people can change for the better in real life, too, it seems to be much more rare than it is in fiction.
When it does happen, it’s a slow process in my experience. Instead of taking one night, it generally takes many years and includes lots of stops and starts.
The gradual process of it makes sense to me as a changing is hard work and rarely happens immediately for anyone no matter which habits we’re trying to begin or end.
But I do wish this transformation would happen more often in the real world. Imagine how much better life would be if it were common for people who have a great deal of wealth and power in the world to give it away in order to save lives and reduce suffering.
So many of the deeply kind and generous people I’ve known have been folks who have limited influence and tight budgets but who still do everything they can to help others. If only everyone behaved the way they do!
Yes, Lydia! I agree with all of this! I love A Christmas Carol, and I like the idea of a mean-spirited person changing their ways, but you’re right; in real life, it takes more than a single night of haunting (although I’ve never been haunted so who am I to say?). It would be lovely to see more people thinking about human beings rather than their bank accounts, but I don’t think we’re going to see an influx of that happening any time soon.
Thanks, George. And sadly I must agree with you.
I love that everybody so far wants tropes that would make the world better. And yeah, I’d love to see more people changing their ways for the better.
It’s so wholesome! 🙂
I agree: when asked what they wish would happen more often in real life, people generally seem to want good things to happen more often, not bad things. But there’s an obvious gap between wishing and working.
You’re totally right there.
I completely agree! Though sadly, I also agree that it happens way too rarely in real life. I guess we just need a bunch of ghosts to make the rounds among our real world’s uber-rich.
Heh, agreed.
I agree with you on this one. Mostly because I hate that there are some people in the world who have so much more than they need, and others who are literally starving to death. You’re right though, in my experience it’s usually the people who have the least who give the most. I think it’s something to do with knowing what it’s like to be in need and therefore feeling more empathy for others in need. It’s not always a hard and fast rule – there are of course people with lots who do give, it’s just something that’s always struck me!
Thanks. 🙂
That would be a lovely one.
Thank you.
I agree that fundamental changes in a person occur (if at all) slowly. I describe it as “Change in a person occurs at the speed of growth, not the speed of insight.” One can see in an instant that a change is needed and what that change should be, but achieving the change occurs slowly and with effort (and fallbacks). But persistence will usually prevail.
That’s a good way to describe it!
While I’ve never known anyone to be haunted by 3 ghosts, I have seen major life hurdles change folks. Some really grow and come to value relationships and putting out good into the world. Some don’t (I remember a supervisor I had who said cancer made her really “choose her battles” but as far as I could tell, she chose none and just let things slide). But it’s still nice to realize people can change in core ways.
But I do love how everyone (so far) is choosing things to change the world for the better (as Michael Mock notes).
We all made great picks this week!
And, yeah, life hurdles can change a person for sure.