Merry Christmas, everyone! One of my new favorite Christmas movies is The Man Who Invented Christmas, a 2017 film starring Dan Stevens about how Charles Dickens was inspired by real-life people and events to write A Christmas Carol. Which means, according to the movie, that there was a real-life Ebenezer Scrooge. Played by Christopher Plummer, he is a pretty terrifying and, at the end, pitiful and sympathetic character.

I have read Dicken’s original story and watched the movie several times, but this year what struck me was how Scrooge was also a very isolated man. He did not have many social connections and the people he did have in his life, he treated with disdain. No wonder he was miserable. We all know how important it is to foster relationships. It’s easy when you are young and surrounded by peers, but harder as you get older. You have to be more intentional about reaching out.

Thankfully, the library offers several clubs and programs where people come together every week to connect over shared interests. At Hulbert Community Library we’ve got a crochet club, book club, etc. At the library in Fort Gibson (“the Q”) we have a chess club, cooking club, etc.

And in January the Q. is starting up two more clubs: Cozy Gamers and Imagiknits. Cozy Gamers is a club that gives people a space to gather together to play, trade items, visit each other’s islands, etc. in cozy games such as Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley. Imagiknits is our new knitting club led by Andrea Cull and sponsored by her brilliant knitting app called Knitrino. Both of these will launch in January at the library in Fort Gibson.

No matter what your interest, there are others who share that same passion, and they might just be at your local library. Find your people, connect with other humans, and do what Scrooge did in the end, grow in kindness to your fellow man.

And if you would like to check out The Man Who Invented Christmas or A Christmas Carol, both of those can be found at the library as well. God bless us, everyone!

Ashley Rouse is the shared branch manager of Q.B. Boydstun Library and Hulbert Community Library, branches of the Eastern Oklahoma Library System.