Reminder: It’s A Wonderful Life

“What I don’t like about office parties, is looking for a job the next day.” – Phyllis Diller

We have my husband’s company Christmas party tonight.  I thought that the above quote was hilarious, but I have no intention of getting him fired.  We need his job.  

My husband and I watched It’s a Wonderful Life again last night.  I had so many observations this go-around, watching it.  First of all, I actually found Jimmy Stewart to be sort of handsome in the movie.  I don’t know if this is an aging thing, or what, but that surprised me.  The movie was made in 1946, the year that my parents were born.  The cars, the telephones, the clothes, the hairstyles, the manner of speaking, etc. in the movie, looked so impossibly antique, more so than ever to me!  Again, an aging thing?!?   Although It’s a Wonderful Life was a box office disappointment, it was nominated for five academy awards and it is usually in the American Film Institute’s list of top 20 American films, ever made. In 2007, it was considered the most inspirational American movie ever made.  Even with it being a black and white film and getting old enough to seemingly be from a different world, the message that the movie makes is still so resonating.  The point of It’s a Wonderful Life is that everyone matters.  Every life makes such a difference in other people’s lives, in ways that are so intricate and complicated, that without that one person’s life, everything would be different for everyone else.  Jimmy Stewart’s character is on the brink of suicide, considering himself a financial failure, yet when his guardian angel shows him how different life would have been for all of those he loves without him, he realizes the value of life in itself.  He realizes his own true value and the very significant, important, holy meaning of his own life.  By the end of the movie, he opens up his eyes to see, just how much he is loved.

“Being rich means having something money can’t buy.” – FofF