Okay, wow, so we have always loved "A Christmas Carol."  Last night Darling Husband and I watched Peter Zemeckis' version.  And at first we were aghast, but not in the right way.  At first we thought the movie was all wrong.  In fact, it got horrible reviews, was soundly panned.  I see why.  It is no charming glad tiding for children.  A Christmas movie not for kids?!  What was Peter thinking?  He was thinking Cartoon Noir.   He just marketed to the wrong audience.

Peter Zemeckis was thinking like Dickens, who never set out to write a charming movie for children.  In his own words, "I have endeavored in this ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an idea."  He set out to write a redemptive but scary story.  Which he did, because he is a genius.  And Peter Zemeckis is possibly the first movie maker honest to the task, or honest to the scope of modern sensibilities.  The movie is SCARY.  I jumped and cried, "Oh My!" at the visage of Marley.  The Zemeckis version is, to use the phrase of my children, "Totally NOT for kids."

But it is moving and forthright.  And I'm grateful for the lesson.  Which, its true, I must learn again and again and again.  Reaching to keep Christmas in my heart.  Because life will flat wear your ass out, if you aren't careful, mindful.  Mindfulness is the lesson, yet another iteration of love, peace on earth, good will.  So grab a nob of nog and settle in for a long winter's animated production not for kids.

As the master said, "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."