Tuesday, December 25, 2007

A Good man of Business

Upon this day a very brief moment to stop picking up bows and little scraps of paper and fully embrace the meaning of our business. Many good friends over yesterday. Much food and talk and fun - truly a good squidmass.
"It is required of every man," the Ghost returned, "that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow men, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world -- oh, woe is me! -- and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!"
[...]
"You are fettered," said Scrooge, trembling. "Tell me why?""I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost. "I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?"Scrooge trembled more and more."Or would you know," pursued the Ghost, "the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous chain!"
[...]
"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob," faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself."Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"
Indeed.

1 comment:

Spiros said...

You know, the older I get, the more it amazes me that we as a species are (were) capable of producing a Charles Dickens. Yay us! (I write this having inadvertantly watched too many minutes of THE MARTHA STEWART SHOW this morning, whilst connecting my parents' new TV set. Talk about the lowest common denomenator.)

A very good Squidmass, indeed.