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Fred's heartwarming lesson about laughter and humor

By Spencer Sumwalt

Fred's heartwarming lesson about laughter and humor

This weekend's flurries that left us with a light covering of snow on the ground coupled with the crisp winter weather certainly makes staying inside a cozy home with a copy of my favorite Christmas novella a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Each year I enjoy rereading and watching Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," as there is always a new message to pull out of the short story that has entertained readers since December 1843.

Dickens uses his protagonist Ebenezer Scrooge to tell that story -- a man who on Page 1 has lost sight of what really matters in life but throughout the course of the story sees the errors of his ways and changes before it's too late.

As I was re-reading my cherished copy this month, it was Scrooge's visit with the Ghost of Christmas Present to his nephew's house on Christmas Day that I found myself thinking about.

Scrooge and the spirit have just arrived at Fred's home. Within seconds, Fred's effervescent personality once again comes across as Dickens' describes him.

"'Ha, ha!'" laughed Scrooge's nephew. "'Ha, ha ha!'"

"If you should happen, by any unlikely chance, to know a man more blest in laugh than Scrooge's nephew, all I can say is, I should like to know him too. Introduce him to me, and I'll cultivate his acquaintance."

Dickens continues in the next paragraph:

"There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humor."

Fourteen simple words that when put together in a sentence remind us of a powerful message that we too often forget.

Forgetting the joy that laughter and good-humor bring to our lives happens too frequently these days, especially when it's so easy to turn on the TV or scroll through social media and be surrounded by negativity almost around the clock. Fred, however, shows us in this part of the story that we should never forget the joy that laughter and good-humor brings to us and to others.

Note Dickens' word choice when he describes humor -- "good-humor," he pens.

Good-humor and laughter -- along with Fred's steadfast kindness toward others -- are so powerful that they help transform Scrooge -- a "squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner" who becomes a man who knows how to keep Christmas well and alive year-round.

There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humor.

May laughter, kindness and good-humor fill your heart on Christmas Day this year just like it does Fred's.

More importantly, however, is to ensure that same laughter, kindness and good-humor fill your heart every day so that you can spread that joy just as Fred and the redeemed Scrooge do in "A Christmas Carol."

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