Every Christmas I try to watch "It's A Wonderful Life" with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed at least once. I was happy, and yet eventually in tears, watching just the ending of it the other day. The moment when George discovers he really has it all gets me every time, plus Zuzu and her comment about "Every time a bells rings, an angel gets its wings." Doesn't that one get everybody?
I did eventually watch the whole movie on Christmas Eve to keep the tradition going. Each time I watch it, I see something new and am thankful for the film's existence. It's important for people to know and think about how much they touch and affect other people's lives.
Christmas is a rough time for me. I don't like necessarily admitting that fact, but it is. Between the family members no longer around, especially my mom and my grandma, to the fact that many of Christmases past were spent working at my dad's flower shop, or others where people just weren't getting along - pardon me for not elaborating - it's a tough one. I believe the reason for the season is Jesus' birth and I am sickened by the amount of stuff that gets brought into this holiday. If you need affirmation of this fact, please watch "The Story of Stuff" by Annie Leonard. Okay, rant finished. Don't get me wrong, I have had quite a share of the good ones too, so don't make me out to be a Scrooge quite yet.
I think that "It's A Wonderful Life" holds such a special place in my heart because I can link it directly to my mother. There was one Christmas and I really wish I could pinpoint the year, but I'm guessing somewhere between 1990 and 1992, that we watched it every time it was on TV. We saw it in color, we saw it in black and white, we saw it with commercials and without, we simply just watched it again and again. We laughed, we cried, we experienced it together. I can tie it to those years because my grandmother died in 1990, I would have been home for Christmas break from WSU for several weeks, and my mother died in 1994. In those years, we needed each other more so than others I suspect.
What does this have to do with photography? Well, I guess that photography allows one to glance back to tangible memories for those times when the brain doesn't bring up the memories on its own. I hope that many happy memories were created and captured this year by folks all over the world. Merry Christmas.
Tags:
christmas, its a wonderful life, memories, mom, stuff
Posted at: 01:43 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
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