Little Happier: From Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol”--What Should We Fear More, Want or Ignorance?

Happier with Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin / The Onward Project

Education, Health & Fitness, Self-improvement

4.7 • 13K Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2019

⏱️ 4 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Re-reading Charles Dickens’s story “A Christmas Carol” got me thinking about the question: What should we fear more, Ignorance or Want? Get in touch on Instagram: @GretchenRubin & @LizCraft Links and notes related to this episode can be found in the latest post here: https://gretchenrubin.com/podcasts/ Get the podcast show notes by email every week here: http://gretchenrubin.com/#newsletter If you pre-ordered Gretchen’s new book Outer Order, Inner Calm, get your preorder bonuses here: http://outerorderinnercalmbook.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Gretchen Rubin and this is A Little Happier.
0:10.1	A couple of months ago around Christmas time, I got the urge to reread A Christmas Carol,
0:15.2	the famous 1843 story by Charles Dickens.
0:19.3	You probably know this story.
0:21.1	It has never been out of print and the story has been adapted many times for film, stage,
0:26.4	opera and other media.
0:28.6	It's the story of the elderly miser, Ebenezer's Scrooge and it takes place on a cold Christmas
0:34.5	Eve in London.
0:36.4	If you've forgotten this story, Scrooge is a hateful, selfish person.
0:40.5	He's cruel to his overworked, underpaid clerk Bob Cratchett.
0:44.6	He refuses to give money to men seeking a charitable contribution and he refuses his nephews
0:49.8	invitation to come for Christmas dinner.
0:53.0	But the night of Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his former business
0:58.2	partner Jacob Marley.
1:00.8	And because of Marley's intervention to try to save Scrooge's soul, Scrooge is visited
1:05.9	in turn by the spirits of Christmas past, Christmas present and Christmas yet to come.
1:12.6	These spirits show him scenes from his life and others' lives and the experience utterly
1:17.4	transform Scrooge into a kind, generous man.
1:21.6	This is a wonderful story.
1:23.7	If you've never actually read it, I highly recommend it.
1:27.8	I've read it many times, but this time I was struck by a fleeting passage that had never
1:32.7	caught my notice before.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Gretchen Rubin / The Onward Project, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Gretchen Rubin / The Onward Project and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.