A Christmas Carol: The Right Thing?

"Look up and not down. Look forward and not back. Look out and not in, and lend a hand." - Edward Everett Hale

How do you decide how much you need yourself to be comfortable compared to what you give back to the world?

I think when the thieves are talking about how Scrooge always “took care of himself”, they’re saying that he’s always put himself first and worried about his comfort more than anyone else’s. Looking out for Number One. I think a person certainly has the right to worry about themselves and their own well-being, but I don’t think it should be their primary concern. You shouldn’t build all your decisions on how it affects you personally over how it might affect someone else. If all anyone ever did was focus on nothing but their own lives, walked staring straight ahead and never including anyone else in their problems, then of course a lot of people would make it out all right. But there would always be a number of people who couldn’t fend for themselves and would need some guidance or aid – so without anyone to help them, how could they even survive?

A Day in the Life of Ebenezer Scrooge

December 24, 1843

It is that wretched time of year again when all the folks go around being joyful when they haven't got the right to. "Merry Christmas!" they cry, so merry themselves; it's sickening. My own nephew is wishing me to be jovial when he himself is poorer than a mouse. He's married (what a thought) and supports his family on his minimal wages, not a spot of gold or silver to his name - bah! Humbug! He tries to convince me to be merry like him on this Christmas Eve, but I have no reason to be and neither has he. Two men came around, odd little men; one short and stout and the other long-limbed and fragile - and they implore me to pay for some poor humbugs to get themselves off the street. Now, no one sees me on the streets, and I put myself in my shop and with my riches, no help from anyone. The poor don't work to save themselves, so throw them into prison, that's what I say! Leave them to the factories. They earned it!