It’s a Wonderful Life…

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor S ure, your mileage may vary based on where you are in life and how things have gone up until now. But I hope you find yourself “simply having a wonderful Christmas time,” to quote Sir Paul McCartney.

The word “wonderful” is an interesting one. The dictionary defines it as an adjective “inspiring delight, pleasure, or admiration; extremely good; marvelous.” Now most of us don’t necessarily go through each day of our lives in a constant state of delight or marvel, but hopefully there are times here and there where you can pause and realize that things are pretty good.

Sure, there are going to be bad times, and sure some people, through poor decision making, unforeseen circumstances or simple bad luck, are not going to have a lot to find wonderful, but I hope everyone reading this can find something to inspire wonder this holiday season.

This idea, of course, comes to me while watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” for probably the 250th time in my life. At this point, I don’t really even have to actively watch it. I can be doing the laundry, wrapping Christmas presents or hanging out with my family and if it’s on in the background, the movie pretty much just plays in my head.

But the message behind the 1946 classic starring Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed and the rest of the gang from Bedford Falls still resonates as strongly with me as it did when it would literally come on dozens of times a year during the holiday season when I was a kid and the copyright on the film was out of date.

And if you’re familiar with the film, the story very much rings true that life, while “wonderful” indeed, is not easy. Sure, at the end of the movie (spoilers for those of you who have somehow missed out on this 80-year-old film) Stewart’s George Bailey character realizes how precious the gift of life truly is, but man, does he go through some things before he gets there…

Now, it’s very unlikely that God is going to send us our own personal angel to show us what life for everyone we know would be like without us (again, spoilers… just go watch the movie already!). But we can still all relate to old George. Just some of the things he has to deal with over the course of his life: A debilitating childhood illness, the early death of his father, scrimping and saving to go to college, feeling trapped in his small home town, feeling financial pressures while struggling to keep his business open, economic downturn, the stress of raising a family, doing what’s right instead of what’s easy, feeling the burden of so many people depending on him, and even scandal and potential legal trouble.

Honestly, that doesn’t necessarily sound like much of a “Wonderful Life” at all. And I can assure you that you and I and everyone reading this column have experienced some version of several things on that list. And hey, we’re still here! I even thought of a few things that George manages to escape that others in the movie have to deal with: Divorce, alcoholism, the death of a child, bankruptcy, mental illness, family disputes and failure. Again, if you’ve dealt with any of these I’m telling you, you’re not alone.

As I think about the hardships I have endured in my own life, I can tell you there were probably times that I wished, like George Bailey, that I had never been born. Not because I hated my life or the people in it, but because when you’re going through something horrible, especially if it’s of your own doing, you can feel like everyone really would be better off without you.

But rest assured, that’s not the case (unless you’re a terrible person, but that’s between you and God, so work that out on your own time). You probably have no idea the positive impact you’ve had on your little corner of the world, on your family and friends, on your co-workers or even that random person you helped out with some random act of kindness here and there.

As Christmas arrives and the New Year is fast approaching, I hope you can find lots of examples of your own about how it truly is “A Wonderful Life,” and if you’re having trouble coming up with some examples, hey, 2025 is about to start. Why not do like George Bailey and realize that even if things are bad, there’s always the hope of a better tomorrow. Like Clarence the Angel tells George at the end of the movie, “No man is a failure who has friends.”

Reach out to someone and share that sentiment this holiday season. You’ll be glad you did. Merry Christmas!