The Richest Person In Town
It's a Wonderful Life and the holiday season
In the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, we witness the life of George Bailey. George Bailey is a man who gave up his dreams to help others. His childhood wasn’t smooth. He saves his younger brother’s life when he rescues him from drowning, but it leaves George deaf in his left ear. Later, he saves the pharmacist, Mr. Grower, after he is distraught at work due to the passing of his young son. Mr. Grower mistakenly tries to give a customer poison.
George grows up and plans to travel the world before heading off to college. He tells everyone his grand plans. Life derails them when his father passes due to an unexpected stroke. George delays his travel to attend to the family business, Bailey Brothers Building and Loan. With his father’s passing, the family business stays open under the condition that George will run it with his uncle, Billy.
George marries Mary Hatch, who had a crush on him since childhood. They set off to celebrate with $2,000, roughly $38,000 today, for their honeymoon, but before they can leave the town, a bank run occurs. They must use the money for the honeymoon to keep the family company afloat.
Later on, George’s younger brother Harry, whom George rescued as a kid, returns to town after being awarded the Medal of Honor for preventing a kamikaze attack in World War II. But not all is well. George’s business partner and uncle, Billy, goes to the bank to deposit $8,000 of the family business money, roughly $148,000 today, but he misplaces the money upon arrival.
It sends George into a whirlwind. He contemplates his life and begins to regret the sacrifices he made to stay home. He gets drunk at a bar and drives drunk crashing his car into a tree. He runs to a bridge nearby and ponders ending it all. Before George can decide, he notices a man struggling to stay afloat in the freezing water below. George jumps in to rescue him. He saves the man and learns the man is his guardian angel, Clarence.
Clarence gives George his wish. He takes George through a life where George doesn’t exist, and it sends George into a frenzy.
No one knows who George is.
The troops his younger brother Harry saved by preventing the kamikaze attack died. George was not alive to rescue Harry from drowning as a kid, leading Harry not to be alive to prevent the attack.
Mr. Grower, the pharmacist, was homeless and ridiculed after spending 20 years in jail for killing someone. George wasn’t there to save Mr. Grower from accidentally prescribing poison.
Uncle Billy went to a mental hospital after the family business failed. Without George, the company wasn’t saved.
Mary, George’s wife, is a librarian. She lived a lonely and meaningless life without him. Mary was an attractive lady and could have anyone. She preferred to be alone since George was never born. It breaks George. Mary loves him more than anything, and George sees she didn’t stumble into marrying him.
His kids never existed because he never existed.
The town became operated by corrupt, sleazy people and venues.
George is devastated and rushes back to the bridge begging for his life back. His wish is granted, and he frantically heads back home. His children are there and people recognize him! At the same time, he is hugging and talking to everyone Mary and his uncle Billy have rallied the town together. People fund the $8,000 that went missing and spurred his downward spiral. George is deemed “the richest man in town” and finds a note from Clarence, his guardian angel, that reads,
“Remember no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings!”
George Bailey loves deeply and is the pulse of his town. He is not the richest man in town because of his monetary wealth, but he is wealthy in community. He learns to appreciate his life, but he also realizes the richness of life comes from the people and love around him. He sees how transformative friends, community, and love can be.
He failed to do what he dreamed of, but he helped others to achieve their dreams. He has a wife who adores and loves him. He realizes how lucky he was to have her, maybe the most important decision of his life.
George realizes it isn’t about what he doesn’t have, the reasons he sees himself as a failure, but it is about what he does have.
George is a common man, a small-town nobody. He is not a war hero who saved many lives, but he is a human who saved the life of the would-be hero. He is a man who keeps his small town from falling apart. He is a man who saves a life and spares a pharmacist from 20 years in jail. He is a man who his family and wife love and need. It is the small acts that George does that start the avalanche of the world becoming a better place. It is the butterfly effect. Small, seemingly trivial events lead to something with much larger consequences. George sees he should never minimize his actions to be trivial because they are small. The people in his life are affected by him in positive ways he couldn’t initially see. They need him, and he needs his people.
Life is built on connection. It is an important reminder during the holiday season. The holidays are not easy for everyone, and I am there with you. It is easy to focus on what you lack versus what you have.
I am trying to find myself out of the noise of the holiday season. I need to separate myself from the patterns that force me to think I am missing out this holiday season. I am thankful for the people in my life, the people 2024 brought me, and the things I got done. I am optimistic that 2025 will strengthen current relationships and develop meaningful ones.
We all have done things this year, and in our lives, that have had a profound effect no matter how small it seems. A tree doesn’t fall down because of the 100th hack of an axe. It falls on the 100th blow because of all the small hacks that had come before. It is the small actions over time that lead to great consequences as we saw in George’s life.
And although it is small, my roommate somehow got me to watch this movie. I am thankful he did. I rarely watch movies. Another reminder the people in your life matter. A person with friends can’t be a failure, and the “richest” people in town are those not with the most money but those richest in relationships and connections. Realizing that it isn’t always about how much we have but how and who we get to spend it with. George Bailey realized it. The ultimate riches are not material. They are out there, in the community, doing small things that profoundly affect others, and sharing life with those we love.
-Scantron
Appreciate you for taking time this busy holiday season. I wish you a very happy holidays!