Having a wonderful life at Christmastime in Phoenix, Arizona


Suicide isn't something you see much in movies, especially feel-good Christmas movies, so its importance in Frank Capra's 1946 movie "It's a Wonderful Life", just seems weird. If you've never seen it, don't worry, this isn't a spoiler. The hero of the story finds himself on a bridge, wondering if the world had been better if he had never been born.

Now calm down here, I have no particular interest with suicide, or death, but I've always had an active imagination, and "what if" scenarios have always fascinated me. So today I'll ponder the only life that I've known from birth, mine, and wonder what the world, specifically Phoenix, would have been like without me. You can do this yourself, and if you've never seen the movie, or it's been a long time since you have, I recommend that you watch it.

Anyway, since I'm having such a wonderful life here at Christmastime in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix, I suppose if I had never been born there would be someone else living here. There might not be wiener dogs sleeping in the living room. Imagine that!

Someone else would have gotten the job at Valley Bank, and gotten the girl. There would probably be a lot less divots at El Caro, or Cave Creek. I suppose someone else could have filled up the Phoenix junkyards with as many cars as I did, but it would have taken some effort!

I don't suppose anyone would have been crazy enough to store a bunch of old photos of Phoenix that were on their way to the dumpster in 1992, and then start scanning them in at about the time the internet was invented. And I can't imagine anyone spending a good chunk of the past twenty years collecting old Phoenix photos, scanning them, labeling them, and giving them away on the internet.

Hmmm... this seems to be a much more cheerful look back than I had thought, which is nice. You may want to try this, it will have you counting your blessings, and knowing how much you've affected the lives of people that you may not have ever even met. And yes, I've had a wonderful life, and I'm rich because, because a man is never poor as long as he has friends.

It's a wonderful life!
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