Mrs. Scrooge: A Christmas Poem
By Carol Ann Duffy, UK Poet Laureate
Published November 24, 2009 (Hardcover) by Simon & Schuster
The deadlines this time of year could potentially turn anyone into a Scrooge. With that challenge, I consciously flip that sense. Every time I react to a pending deadline by tightening up in fear, I release it and dive back into a calm flow that inevitably works.
Let me tell you how all these Scrooges collided tonight.
You know by now that I’ve pledged to write a book blog every weekday. Today, I was producing podcasts, and before I knew it, it was time to get ready for the theatre. No time to read a book, and blog about it. One of my friends, knowing how much I love theatre, had invited me out to see A Christmas Carol in Portland, and dinner after.
God, I love dressing for the theatre — must be the New Yorker in me. And I knew that my friend would be dressed classy – he always is. The one-act musical delighted, and the cast carried the familiar story. The lines familiar, the songs new.
After the show, we walked about seven blocks – me in four-inch shiny black heels, him offering his elbow in a gentlemanly fashion, which I took. We ended up at a fabulous Italian restaurant, where, for nearly three hours, we talked of many things – radio, theatre, life. Especially life. I told him my belief that there’s who, what, when, where — and how we turn over to the Universe, while why is just whining.
We discussed Time, and I mentioned I had this blog to write when I got home, but I was relaxed about it. There had to be a fit in my stacks — that wouldn’t keep me up all night reading and writing. That’s one thing I’ve been learning — and re-learning — Time doesn’t present obstacles, we do, by our fears. I told him I knew it would work out.
I got home at midnight, and there it was. Mrs. Scrooge. The 36-page book beckoned to me from atop a stack of books I’d forgotten I had. And I read the slim bright red book. Sweet poem — don’t expect any rhyming — about the woman who married Ebeneezer Scrooge after his awakening revealed in A Christmas Carol. Mrs. Scrooge has lost her life partner, and, carrying on alone, on this particular Christmas Eve, she attempts to awaken the consciousness of holiday shoppers – concerned for how malevolently turkeys are treated, and doing what she can for the environment and future generations.
She, too, receives three spirits — the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. I won’t spoil the ending. Suffice it to say that it is joyous.
And I am joyous — having had a wonderful night in every sense of the word. Joyous, I am, at seeing Scrooge on stage, on finding Mrs. Scrooge in my office, at delighting in the serendiptous lessons, shared with a dear friend.
