Ebenezer Scrooge and Service Above Self? That may seem like an odd combination. The very name – Scrooge – has become eponymous with being miserly. But, at this time of year, let’s not forget the end of A Christmas Carol, the wonderful short novel by Charles Dickens. Here is the book's penultimate paragraph:

     “Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed; and that was quite enough for him."

     Dickens then concludes the novel, writing that, from that day forward, Scrooge "knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that truly be said of us! And so, as Tiny Tim, observed, God bless Us, Every One!"

     These words, written in 1843, capture the spirit of Rotary: Is it the TRUTH? Is it FAIR to all concerned? Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

Merry Christmas!

Andy