We knew what was coming next. Still, we hung together in the long pause as the tension built. And the gravitas.
As couple thousand of us sat under the sky ceiling of the Ohio Theatre and held a collective breath, it began to dawn—that the next word would come as a challenge. And a choice.
I hadn’t expected this pause.
I had expected the last word of The Christmas Carol to roll right off the tongue of Tiny Tim in a jovial sort of way. After all, Scrooge had already been redeemed. He had committed to living in the Past and the Present and the Future, to let the spirit of all three strive within him.
And he was feeling mighty good.
“I am as light as a feather,” he said. “I am as happy as an angel. I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody. A happy New Year to all the world. Hallo here. Whoop. Hallo.”
I wanted to leave the theatre as happy as this new Scrooge, with visions of the parlor games at the nephew’s house and the dancing at Fezziwig’s party. I wanted to remember the pudding singing in the copper and the twelfth-night cakes and the great goose.
But the pause did its work.
God bless us . . . Tiny Tim had said before he broke off, suspending the flow I had anticipated.
And the stillness compelled me to reflect on my values and, even more, to move forward with greater purpose and intention.
. . . Everyone.
Perhaps this last word encapsulates the yuletide spirit. But it does more. It adds a caution. It’s easy for all of us to become like Scrooge, before his redemption, that is.
Apple to Apple 