The Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge memories of his childhood and as a young man. Scrooge loved his sister (the mother of his nephew Fred). He loved a young woman, Belle, who rejected him when she realized that money was more important to him than she was. He loved his employer, Mr. Fezziwig, from whom he inherited his business.

Scrooge and Jacob Marley made a pact to make money. This scene shows us the importance of our friends and how we are influenced by our friends. The Buddha tells us that our spiritual friends, with whom we have spiritual conversations, are all of the spiritual life.

Our well-being relies a great deal on the company we keep. Hanging out with people we admire leads us down the path we want to go. We can also consider other “friends” we spend a lot of time with, such as social media, TV, movies, video games, the internet, the news. Are these so-called friends leading us where we want to go?