Perceptions: What’s Missing In Life

Ted and his wife Helen could not have any children. If they had they would have been great parents, they were a couple full of excitement, adventure, and dreams. Their life would have been full of love and joy. Ted started as a cartoonist but soon began to write. As a writer and he would even dedicate his books to three factious children he and Helen made up.

Ted wrote a story about a fictional, bitter, cave-dwelling creature with a heart "two sizes too small” which lives on snowy Mount Crumpit, a steep high mountain just north of Whoville, home of the merry and warm-hearted Whos. His only companion is his faithful dog, Max. From his lonely perch high atop Mount Crumpit, the Grinch can hear the noisy Christmas festivities that take place in Whoville. Annoyed and unable to understand the Whos' love and joy, he makes plans to descend on the town and deprive them of their Christmas presents, Who-ham and decorations and thus "prevent Christmas from coming."
If he can take away their gifts, he can take away their love and joy, and Christmas will never come to Whoville? However, he learns in the end that despite his success in taking away all the Christmas presents and decorations from the Whos, Christmas comes just the same. He then realizes that Christmas is more than just gifts and presents, its love and joy. Touched by this, his heart grows three sizes larger; he returns all the presents and trimmings and is warmly welcomed into the community of the Whos.
Ted, known to all as Dr. Seuss, after becoming the first children’s book author to win a Pulitzer Prize, revealed near the end of his life that the Grinch was really him, as the love and joy of parenthood escaped him. To all parents and grandparent go and reread “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” by Dr. Seuss again or watch the cartoon movie version with your children or grandchildren by your side. Now knowing about Dr. Seuss’s lifelong search for love and joy, I promise you will have a different perspective. Maybe we have to view the world for a moment through the eyes of someone searching for love and joy to appreciate the gifts in our own life.
Love & Joy,
Tommy