It’s a wonderful life, and it’s a hard one, but I think we like to take sides. There are moments before — when you are just a grumbling exhausted mess trying to make a goddamned living – and after, when angels are getting their wings and you are the richest man in town.
What’s interesting to me is how these two worlds can’t be civil with one another. Forget civil — we barely recognize one when we are living in the other. Maybe all children lose hearing in one ear or the other at some point? Maybe we start favoring one side early on? But there’s a little Pottersville in every Bedford Falls; while you cheerily lasso the moon there are those who are bankrupt and bereft. And while you lose everything you love, somewhere there’s snow falling on a small town steeple.
When you expect everything to be one way or the other, you may end up on a bridge ready to jump the first time your banister breaks. Carry Zuzu’s petals with you — a reminder that the lovely and the fallen both live in your pocket.
And remember: you know you are alive because your mouth is bleeding. The wound is real – and life is wonderful.
Starting Close 