Opening the Magic Diary of Ebenezer Scrooge
January, 1844
It has almost been a year since I decided to change my life and now I see things in a different way. Making other people happy appears to be the most favorable thing I have ever tried out during my whole existence. There is no other pleasure than the pleasure you get when a little child says “thank you”, gives you a warm embrace or even looks at you gratefully with his big, lovely eyes. You feel that the world is yours because of just one thought that you made another person smile, that you filled his day with endless love and delight, that you gave him the opportunity not to think about everyday problems even just for a second.
During this year of redemption I realized that every person in the world was born to live a life full of everything - full of love, full of care, full of joy and laughter, full of trustful people they could rely on and now I am trying to be one of these people for my neighborhood. And finally the most important thing I have understood so far is that nobody deserves humiliation. Oh, humiliating - a thing that I used to do every day during my lifetime and I honestly feel sorry about that now. Looking back, I see that I have done many bad things in my life. I have been a greedy, mean, selfish and grasping man, but now I am trying to get rid of my old sins that are torturing me from deep inside of my old heart. And day by day, I feel the love and unquenchable desire to change the world into a better place burning in me brighter than the sun in the sky. And this is what I call magic.
Last year, when I was visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past, I flew to the places that I hadn’t visited for a very long time, I saw my old house and I felt like a child again, it was not a good feeling, as I always tried not to remember how I lost my dear sister and how I wasn’t accepted by the other people. I saw how I was becoming the severe Scrooge! I thought that other people were the reason for this. And the only thing I wanted then was to get away from the ghost and carry on living my life.
Then the Ghost of Christmas Present visited me and he showed me the family of my clerk - Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, Bob’s son, who was ill and the family didn’t have enough money to buy medicine for him. It was the first time in many years that I have felt sorry for someone. But it still didn’t change me. Then the ghost showed me two poor children, the boy – Ignorance and the girl – Want! He told me to be aware of both of them and then he vanished.
And only when the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come visited me and I was just about to die, I realized that I have done only evil things to people around me, but I was not afraid of dying, I was afraid of leaving my new goals undone in this world. So the ghost spared me and set me free. And now I live a completely another life and I am trying to be as generous as I can.
Now I understand that I have lived a terrible life and these ghosts taught me a great lesson. I promised myself to dedicate the rest of my life to making my friends’ lives happy. In the end I can only give a piece of advice to those who will read this someday - never regret the things you have done before, regret the things you haven’t done yet. You are the creator and the destroyer of your own destiny. If you have already made many mistakes - correct them, as soon as you have enough time and only after all this you can reach your magic. A very clever child once said, “God bless us, every one”