The Mom Weekly Volume 72: December 24, 2024
You can read this, or any other previous Mom Weeklies, by going to the home page here.
This was such a wonderful exercise to pick out great quotes from A Christmas Carol. I honestly could do this for many more times, for all kinds of books. And I must just do so! Enjoy.
Remember how much I love you,
Mom
“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” Or, Great Quotes from a Christmas Carol, Part III
“Ghost of the Future!” he exclaimed, “I fear you more than any spectre I have seen. But as I know your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a thankful heart. Will you not speak to me?”
It gave him no reply. The hand was pointed straight before them.
“Lead on!” said Scrooge. “Lead on! The night is waning fast, and it is precious time to me, I know. Lead on, Spirit!”
…………
“Good Spirit,” he pursued, as down upon the ground he fell before it: “Your nature intercedes for me, and pities me. Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me, by an altered life!”
The kind hand trembled.
. . . . . . . . .
“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!”
Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset.
He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!
Interesting/Notable:
Love, Death, and Gratitude: Seven Stories—Honestly Podcast
This is such a quick and wonderful listen. It’s excerpts from the StoryCorps archives. What a great use of stories to heal and connect!
Why Do Some People Get Lost?—Discover Magazine
A study finds that experience, rather than innate ability, is a common denominator of people with a good sense of direction. I’ve always enjoyed pathfinding and navigating for myself, and I encourage all of you to do so as well! It’s really a good way to understand where you are in space and on the earth.
Christmas Morning—SNL Song
I guess I missed this when it first came out. It’s pretty funny!
An Action Item: Check out the inflation calculator
We were having a discussion recently about if EurailPasses were still a thing. I thought that the Eurailpass we had for Europe in the mid-1980s was about $300 for a month. J3 found that today’s Eurailpass is about $400 a month, which surprised me, as I was sure it was about that same price 30something years ago!
So I found that a monthlong student Eurailpass in 1983 was $270, and I think that’s what I had. When I input this into an inflation calculator, it tells me that $270 in 1983 dollars costs $852. And yet a current Eurailpass runs about $400—that’s a good value!
You can put any of those numbers into this handy little calculator from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. For instance, you can put in your income from an early job, and see how much it would be in today’s dollars. It’s really fun to play around with. Check it out!