By ERNIE NEUFELD
Literature has brought most of us to the appreciation of noble deeds, and contempt for small-mindedness in its myriad manifestations, to the point where the same "most of us" feel desperately lacking in the first attribute, and all too beset with the latter.
Who among us does not remember the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol", who hoarded his shekels, while begrudging his faithful servant Bob Cratchit, the loving father of countless children including handicapped and lovable Tiny Tim, a half-day or so to celebrate Christmas with his family?
How we rejoiced with other right-minded people when the Ghosts of the Christmas Present, Past and Future brought mean old Ebbie to turn from his selfish ways and even (I think) supply a Christmas bird for the Cratchits' holiday table.
I have special reason to recall the story, having played, in Grade 7, the part of Second Cratchit Boy (without lines) in a school play. Naturally we all identified with the Cratchits, since we were personally not in a position to give handouts to the needy anyway.
Nowadays, most of us live in neighbourhoods and conditions where we do not often come face to face with hunger and destitution in its many forms, but an outpouring of tiresome letters reminds us constantly that there are not only great needs to be met, but countless organizations relying on our generosity in helping to make the world a more bearable place.
Thus I was cheered recently when reading a selection of essays and speeches by the late Canadian journalist and novelist Robertson Davies entitled "The Merry Heart", to learn there are others who find the pitiful but endless solicitations of countless charities overwhelming and often suspect.
Wrote he, in part, on the subject: " pestered and belabored as we all are nowadays by organized charity, (that Briareus* whose hundred hands are all extended on behalf of causes and diseases of which we have never heard) we rejoice when Scrooge sends the charity collectors away with a flea in their ear. We are not stony-hearted, we are not deaf to the cry of the needy, but when, apparently from nowhere, the Society for the relief of Ruptured Calithumpians, sends us an expensive piece of three-colour printing demanding a handout right now, and no two ways about it, we have a fellow-feeling with Scrooge, and may even murmur, 'Ah! Humbug!'"
Davies admits on the other hand that when he has sent his last envelope containing a cheque, his soul feels cleansed as was that of Scrooge on Christmas morning to find the Three Spirits "who had visited him were creatures of a redemptive dream. We love Scrooge in both his phases."
So what's your feeling about the inundation of professional solicitations?
* If you have no fond memories of Briareus (as I do not), Google tells me he was one of the Heconchires, 100-handed ones with 50 heads, mothered by an ancient Greek goddess known as Mother Earth; in a struggle with the Titans, these creatures used their 100 hands to throw rocks at their foes.
Corrections: United Empire Loyalists' Regina president Logan Bjarnason corrects my suggestion in the December 20 Ernestly column that Loyalists might have accounted for a casual attitude on the part of the Canadian government toward dual citizenship. People living in what became the United States of America, were, of course, British citizens, and retained that citizenship when they opted, following the American Revolution, for living in that part of North America remaining British. At the time there was no official Canada; the Loyalists simply remained British subjects as they had been to begin with.
Also I have no idea whether 10, 100, 10,000 or any aboriginals traveling back and forth between Canada and the U.S. officially enjoy official dual citizenship. It was just an opinion that their situation might lead in some instances to such a status.
An obvious and regrettable error in the January 3 column suggested President Bush might be considering evacuation of U.S. forces from Iran. It is Iraq, naturally, that may have to be abandoned, and even that is far from definite. My sincere apologies across the board.
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