Boxing Day - Marley's visit...

So here it is another Boxing Day. A day for cold meats, bubble and squeak, and pickles; not that I need a pickle this Boxing Day, I’ve had enough of those, even, a couple of years ago, a visit from my own Jacob Marley.

Yes, Boxing Day, a poor cousin to Christmas Day itself - a relaxed day, a not to worry day, a day for reflection.

Sometimes I’ll dip into a book and often it’s A Christmas Carol by my good friend Charlie Dickens. I’ve read that book a dozen times at least, so usually I just flick through reading my favourite passages. It seems to me that A Christmas Carol contains everything you need to know about being a decent human being, everything you should aim for, not just at Christmas but at any time of the year. There is so much truth in it, so much to take note of, it might be a blueprint for happiness. Of course happiness isn’t easy but we all have to strive for it, or at least I do. So I just flick through reading my favourite passages and think about what they mean to me.

A long time ago I was asked to think about what people would say about me at my funeral, asked to imagine the conversations they were having. At that time I wasn’t sure that I liked what I imagined hearing and I’m not sure when I hear them in my mind today that I like them still. But at least my imagined comments are a little better these days than they were back then.

Of course it’s all in my mind, and I could be wrong, but I’ll keep working at it. After all, who wants people pleased and relieved at your demise?

Who indeed Jacob, who indeed?

So, if you take my advice begin with the end in mind and remember Marley’s warning. Oddly, I think I may have a lot to be thankful to him for - poor, hopeless, devil.

Happy Boxing Day, try to find a little time for reflection and remember what Scrooge said to the spirit of Christmas to come: "Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead.”