Can you hear the chains of servitude clanking?

Do you hear the chains?  The clink and clank of heavy chains?  The dragging sound emanating from a really long length of chain?  We do.  Do you?

Many have heard, read or viewed the classic Dickens version of A Christmas Carol.  But did you know you were living a ghost story, too?  Will you hear the chains?

Your first ghost reminds you of a violent birth in a distant past.  An idea that moved men and women to embrace a new faith.  Wealth was not the motivator.  Prestige was not the goal.  Simply put, the desire for personal human change and growth was what mattered then.  The elusive element called freedom, established in a singular place in this world, resulted in a stampede based upon what was the intellectual standard of the day.  The growth and development triggered by that “shot heard ‘round the world” was and is unprecedented.

This ghost slowly fades, as does the past, all the while reminding you that it was good!


Your second ghost displays your current state.  That of a people more concerned with salaries, benefits, retirements, and career advancement than of any other faith or philosophy.  Studies, surveys, pools, investigations, and democracy are the intellectual standards of this day.  The frontier spirit has been replaced by “womb to tomb” benevolent-speak.

Why do youth behave as they do?  This ghost informs you that they are watching you.  Do you hear the chains?


Your third ghost is yet to come, but hints of its arrival are trumpeted for all to hear and see.  Death.  Death removes any possibility for change or growth.  Death terminates thoughtful reflection.  That is the meaning and purpose of death.  This ghost “binds the chains”.  Towns of all sizes, near and far, show signs of a not too distant future, with a people incapable of differentiating between life and death (or for that matter, between what makes life worth living and that for which you would willingly die).

As in the classic version, the ghost silently points to the stone, solemnly indicating that money changing is death, and faith in security and safety is the pathway to doom.  Coins have the remarkable property of sounding very much like chains, whether they are in the government purse or the pockets of your pants.

Will any heed the silence influence of the third ghost?


Do you hear the chains?  The clink and clank of heavy chains?  The dragging sound emanating from a really long length of chain?  We do.  Do you?