Hope and Kindness
The Maundy Monday Newsletter - This Week in History December 18 - 24.
Next Monday is Christmas. This shouldn’t surprise any of us; we have been trending this way for the entire year. So here we are! I hope you got all your Christmas shopping done. Anonymous is in charge of that for our family. I hope she got herself something nice.
Christmas can also be a time of stress and anxiety, which is always fun, but there are plenty of iconic stories based on the holiday about hope and kindness. A few even mix these themes. One story shows how stress and anxiety turn instantly into hope and kindness, and all it takes is a long night's sleep and dreams about ghosts.
On December 19, 1843, English novelist and social critic Charles Dickens published A Christmas Story.
You know the story by now because it turns 180 years old this week.
Ebenezer Scrooge is synonymous with mean bosses. You don’t need it to be Christmas time to use this reference; you can describe your boss as a Scrooge, and everyone will know what you are implying. Scrooge is filled with negative connotations.
But based on the story, is that what we should take from it? Should we focus on stress and anxiety and the meanness that springs from it?
Because when you think about it, being called a Scrooge should mean that you are a person capable of transformation. It means that you are a person who has inherent goodness somewhere, buried deep inside you, that if you only took the time to look at yourself with an open heart and mind, you can conclude that you have areas of your life that you need to improve.
And then you do it.
Basically, being a Scrooge means overcoming your pain and the massive ego that covers it like a blanket. Instead of being feared and loathed, you are now welcomed and respected. Instead of being focused on making money, no matter what, you now appreciate the people who help you make that money, especially helping those who have no money.
Being a Scrooge should be a good thing.
So, to those of you who have a mean boss, or maybe your boss’s boss is mean, or if you work for Spotify, I hope they all become the Scrooge at the end – ones that have transformed their heart.
If they need ghosts to haunt them into it, then so be it.
Okay, let's highlight what else happened this week. Here's what I got:
President Bill Clinton was impeached on two counts on December 19, 1998. Becoming just the second president to face removal, the House passed two articles related to Clinton's infidelity. In a return to the good old days, the current Republican-led House is conducting an inquiry to investigate, which they hope will lead to impeaching the current president, Joe Biden. Impeachment is the gift we give ourselves this time of year.
John Steinbeck died on December 20, 1968. The Noble Peace and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of a few books I have never read, including Of Men and Men, East of Eden, and Tortilla Flat. He did write Grapes of Wrath, and I read that twice but don’t ask me about it. I’ve forgotten everything.
Maryland ceded 10 square miles to the federal government on December 23, 1788. After deciding to move the nation’s capital south to appease Southern politicians, Maryland gifted more land than its neighbors from Virginia. You call the newly created land Washington, DC. I call it home.
How A Christmas Carol came to be is pretty interesting.
Dickens was a well-known novelist in the 19th century (he wrote Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities, for crying out loud), but by early 1843, he was practically broke. His publisher threatened him with even less pay when his latest novel, Martin Chuzzlewit, published in 1842, began to experience a decline in sales, despite Dickens thinking it was his best work.
By October, his wife was expecting their fifth child, and Dickens needed something to happen fast.
Dickens was a social critic of how society treated the less fortunate, which included advocating ending the suffering of poor children working in mines throughout England.
He thought he could combine his need for advocacy and the rising popularity of Christmas to turn his financial situation around. It would be a win-win proposition.
So, during long walks around London, he developed the story that would become A Christmas Carol. Tiny Tim, the poor little kid who had to walk around with crutches, is a perfect example of Dickens providing justice to the most vulnerable. You can only feel hope and kindness for Tiny Tim. He’s tiny. He’s poor. He delivers the line, God Bless us, everyone. Scrooge repeats it at the end of the novel.
Transformation complete. Hope and kindness win.
I love that Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in about six weeks. I think a lot about what I will write when walking around DC, but I haven’t produced internationally known masterpieces. Instead, I have the 210th-most popular history newsletter on Substack.
Dickens put the finishing touches on A Christmas Carol in the first week of December, and the first edition sold out by Christmas Eve. This was before social media, so I have no idea how word traveled that quickly, or maybe he only published four copies.
Either way, it is impressive. I’ve been writing this blog for three years; only 300 people know about it. We can change that!
We will complete our rankings of the Constitutional Amendments on Friday, just three short days before Christmas. I’m racing to finish it like I was Dickens on a deadline.
We have two left. Which one do you think will win out?
You have a 50/50 shot of getting it correct. Blue wishes you all good luck!
Thank you for your continued support of Okay History. I’m grateful to you all.
I’ll see you this Friday. I hope you have a great week with less stress and anxiety and more hope and kindness.
Okay,
Chris
GO FOR 209th!!