Coming to America

     For those who believe that the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge is not believable, let me tell you the story of Laura Bridgman. In 1842--the year before he wrote A Christmas Carol--Charles Dickens traveled to America. During this visit, you might say that Dickens was treated like the Beatles were treated in 1964. But you'd be wrong. The Beatles were treated the way that Dickens was treated.

     But there was one young lady who was immune to the Dickens charm.

     In Boston, Dickens visited the Perkins School for the Blind, where he met a young girl by the name of Laura Bridgman. She was 13 at the time and very animated and conversational. This was not just rare but unique, as she had been blind and deaf from the age of two. Fifty years before the world would hear of Helen Keller, Bridgman had been taught sign language and had been removed, forever, from a dark prison.

     That was an unbelievable transformation, and it had to have affected Dickens for the rest of his life. The story is told in his book American Notes, but Dickens didn't write it. He left that honor to Samuel Gridley Howe--the person who patiently taught Laura Bridgman sign language and changed her life forever.  

     Surely, Scrooge, fettered by only habit and cynicism, had less to conquer.