It was Day Three of our eventful holiday-themed weekend, and we had a wonderful time visiting with Martha's aunt Anne in Clemson this Sunday morning, still a little full after dinner at Paesanos the night before. We had plenty of time after lunch to carry several boxes of Christmas decorations from her storage room and help set them up. Every family has a trove of such decorations, reminders of loved ones long gone and memories still alive. Surely that is the part of this special season that we all treasure the most.
The play we were going to see was the Clemson Little Theater's rendition of
It's a Wonderful Life, that 1946 Frank Capra movie so many of us associate with the Christmas season, starring Donna Reed and James Stewart at his best. They always do a top-notch job in this theater - many of the actors are
professors from Clemson, we understand - and the performance today did
not disappoint us.
The story of banker George Bailey, rescued by his guardian angel Clarence as he is on the brink of suicide, is a heartwarming tale that is especially welcome during these sad times our country finds itself in, where the same kind of greed and corruption personified in the corrupt Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore) seem ready to overtake us. But: "Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends." And as Pa Bailey said, "All you can take with you is that which you've given away."
At the beginning of this Christmas season, it is good to discover again, as George Bailey did, that we can rely on what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature." And that it is, indeed, a Wonderful Life.
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