It's A Wonderful Story

I’m not sure how to say what it is that I want to say. If I were writing a paper in high school I would be sure to include in my opening line that this weekend I saw a wonderful play. As a high school graduate, I’ll start off with: Christmas is almost here… it’s less than a week away! (An ellipsis!?! In the opening line!?!) While the big day is quickly approaching, Christmastime started a couple of months ago.

If anything, Thanksgiving is the traditional start of the holiday season, but now-a-days, I believe you’re expected to be at a full holiday spirit sprint by Thanksgiving just to keep up. The season starts warming up in stores as early as October 9th. Then themed commercials start popping up in early November. This year, November 19 was the day that the listen-while-you-work radio station switched over to all-Christmas, all-the-time. Then after Thanksgiving, anything goes!

The exuberance level is at a sustained month-long fever-pitch. Stores go crazy trying to win your business! Neighbors turn their yards into something between a flea market and a light-show extravaganza!  And of course, several television stations turn into holiday movie marathons, featuring a solid month of non-stop holiday movies to remind us of the true meaning of Christmas… although this year Back to the Future is somehow included in that repetitive marathon.

For years, the only movie that was aired more than once was It’s A Wonderful Life. It is the holiday classic of holiday classics (mainly because of its awesome special effects! Wait, no…). I’ve seen the movie a few times but all I remember is a scene here and there – for some reason a construction scene is the first thing I think of – and it has a happy ending.

This weekend I got to see the story played out at the community theater. Oh my god! What a great story! I am not joking; it has to be one of the Greatest Stories Ever Told! Once I realized what was going to happen at the end with all the people helping him out… well, it got pretty emotional. Granted, I was probably one of the few people over the age of 8 who did not know how the story ended, but I’m glad I didn’t. And I’m glad I do now.

Hot Dog, that George Bailey is one swell guy. He’s always doing the right thing and in return, the world takes care of him. I wish I could be more like George Bailey, as it is I’ve just been running around shouting Merry Christmas at fever-pitch for the past six weeks.

Merry Christmas, you old George Bailey!