Saturday, December 24, 2005

it's a wonderful world

it's christmas eve and i have just finished watching it's a wonderful life with my family. it plays every christmas eve, but this is only the second time i've watched it. the first time was eight years ago. i teared up then. i teared up today.

the movie gives me hope. too often i focus on the mr. potters of the world. he's everywhere i look. walmarts. banks. pay-day loan centers. gas stations. car dealerships. television commercials. watches. music. magazines. christian book stores. mormon book stores. churches. schools. microsoft. oil. george bush. iraq. it's everywhere.

with so many mr. potters, i start to wonder if there are any george bailey's around.

believe me. there are. sometimes we just don't recoginize them. sometimes they don't recognize themselves. yesterday, i saw george bailey ringing a bell and collecting for the salvation army. nbc news did a story on a george bailey who spends her whole year helping needy children. this afternoon george bailey opened a door for me as he was finishing a cigarette before going into a restaurant. some george baileys volunteer at hospitals. some george baileys give what they can to the poor. some george baileys help an elderly couple with yard work and house maintanance. some george baileys volunteer as big brothers and big sisters. other george baileys are just always there when we need them. a month ago, a george bailey pulled over and offered me a ride to school in her car safe from the cold and snow.

there really are george baileys everywhere. and that makes this world something wonderful.

merry christmas everyone.

5 comments:

  1. thanks camille!!!

    hope you had a merry christmas. did you get rough stone rolling?

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  2. I have never seen It's A Wonderful Life...so I didn't understand at first that Mr. Potter must be the name of a character in the show...the first thing I thought of was Harry Potter. But I think I understand now. ha ha

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  3. It's easy enough to accuse people of being a Mr. Potter or George Bailey based on a few moments of interaction with them but, of course, that's terribly short-sided. (How many doors has G.W. or Hitler held open for people?) I hope we can all learn to suspend judgement a little more, become personality agnostics if you will, able to suspend judgement of an entire being based on the seconds of their life that we've viewed or shared. A thoughtless moment does not a Mr. Potter make.

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  4. good to hear from ya ciarin. i don't get any cut from you using my link to amazon,but you should be able to get it for six bucks or so from them.

    i heard mormonism for dummies was quite good. what are your thoughts?

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  5. i changed my mind ciarin. if you order backslider, be sure to use the link from my site. i set it up to give me a little bonus when people use the links on my site to order books.

    i haven't read any of the dummies books since the original dos for dummies years ago.

    you should get rough stone rolling. i'm thinking of setting up a new blog and getting a group of people to read and discuss it. i dunno if it'll happen, but i'm at least thinking of it.

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