THE GREATEST GIFT:

It's a Wonderful Life gives us a "big picture" view of what makes a community strong, real, and vibrant. Even in a time when so many of us have not experienced genuine community life, Frank Capra helps us to recognize it.

The people who live in Bedford Falls are a part of something greater than themselves. To survive, a community or a civil society must have enough people with the humility to know this is the case. Too often in our society today we have people at the top who "have it all" and people at the bottom who are barely surviving. Isn't it time for those of us in the shrinking middle to start acting as if we share a common humanity with the folks at the top and the folks at the bottom?

Strong communities do not just happen. In Capra's vision of genuine community, sacrifices have to be made, personal time must be invested, and sustained effort put into forming friendships.

The marriage of George and Mary Bailey is seen as a foundational structure that frames a way of life in community and civil society. When the hard times come, we have to be able to rely on people we can trust and they must be able to rely on us. This assumes that we must know one another well enough for trust to be possible. Capra grasps these concepts and depicts them brilliantly in the sequences right after George and Mary get married.

George and Mary witness a run on the bank. George explains to the investors that their homes are really an investment in everyone else's home as well. This turns out to be one of the best scenes in classic movie history to explain what the common good is all about. George reassures everybody that: "We can get through this thing all right. We've got to stick together, though. We've got to have faith in each other."

We only see glimpses of life in Pottersville, but what we see is that people are not happy. Ernie is an unfriendly, bitter and divorced man. Nick is no longer a kind bartender but a bully, and Violet is being arrested and dragged to jail.

George has touched many lives by the choices he made every day. It is important to recognize that every single person has a gift to give to others. Their absence leaves a hole in the fabric of society and the world would never be the same without them.

Clarence brings the lesson home: "Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives, and when he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?"

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