ron reed | the air was filled with phantoms: a christmas carol & field of dreams
The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went. Every one of them wore chains like Marlye's Ghost. Many had been personally known to Scroote. He had been quite familiar with one old ghost in a white waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attaced to its ankle, who cried piteously at bein unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant whom it saw below upon a door-step. The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power forever." Yesterday I got back to working lines for A Christmas Carol, and this has stayed with me since. "They sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power forever." Dickens' view of eternal torment wasn't physical punishment, not inescapable pain or unquenchable thirst or unending hunger - except the thirst and hunger to care for people. Not just to care ABOUT people, which in fact t...