A Rude Awakening at an Office Party

I was taken aback! I dare say I was appalled!

Tonight I attended an office Christmas party after work. We gathered at a restaurant and someone had a game for us to play.

Now I need to remind you that having grown up in the Bible-belt and being firmly ensconced in a church setting most of my life - most of my acquaintance with party games were in that "church" setting. I don't really regret that, it's just that most of my experience with party games has been that type that worked more like a practical joke with one person being the "brunt" of the joke.

Therefore I approach party-games with a very healthy sense of caution.

This game was fairly benign. It was one of those ice-breakers that forces you into "safe" conversations. We were to each find people in the room whose life experiences matched the ones described on a paper we were given. It was things like "Never saw a white Christmas" or "Re-gifted a Christmas gift last year".

Somewhere on that page, among those "safe" conversation starters lurked a hideous truth that I was not prepared to face.

It was a small group - less that twenty people. People that I work with every day - people I thought I knew pretty well.

One of the items on the page was the statement: "Has never seen 'It's a Wonderful Life!'"

As we were going over the responses as a group - someone polled the entire group...

Probably over one-third of that group had never seen "It's a Wonderful Life!". I could not believe it! And I couldn't believe they were so freely admitting it in that public forum.

No wonder our country is in the shape it's in when 33%+ of a random sample of fairly intelligent people had never seen the icon of holiday sentimentalism.

When I protested and expressed my disappointment in blustering terms - they just blew off my words as if it were no large concern.

"It's a Wonderful Life!" is - in my opinion - THE best holiday movie ever made. And it is right up there with "Casablanca" as possibly the best movie of all time.

The watching of this movie is almost a sacred rite that is observed with great care in our home each Christmas season.

It is typically the movie that I reserve for the week of Christmas to watch. I like to build up to it. We may start the season with "National Lampoon's: Christmas Vacation" or "A Christmas Story" or some other newer movie of little significance. As the season progresses we move to more solid Christmas fare like "Christmas in Connecticut", "White Christmas" and "Holiday Inn". Cary Grant's "The Bishop's Wife" and even it's less-than-two-decades-old counterpart - "The Preacher's Wife" might follow.

Finally, it is time for the main event. Some years, R. and I have saved it until Christmas Eve.

I do not believe I have missed a viewing of this movie more that two or three Christmases in the past 25 years.

When I first discovered this Frank Capra classic, I would catch bits and pieces of the movie - usually on Christmas Day.

I remember when I was struggling in the field of sales and felt the weight and pressure of poor performance - I could relate to George Bailey as he came home late night after night, trying to bear up under the pressure "Potter" was putting on him.

As I waived good-bye to my teenage years and moved fully into adulthood ... being a hopeless romantic ... I longed for love. I envied George Bailey whose heart was smitten by the faithful and loving Mary.

When I had finally broken free from the bondage of misspent career choices and had moved into the "bliss" of entrepreneurial enterprise - I empathized with George again as it looked like his business and all he had worked for was going away.

This movie has always had something for me.

Jimmy Stewart may not have been that great of an actor - but because of his "everyman" style - he always moves me; and he's my favorite.

Frank Capra, the movies' director, had a life changing experience in which he felt that God had challenged him to really say something worthwhile with his movies. So his movie trademarks are things like humor, large groups of family and friends, patriotism, a love for one's fellow man, and always a hopeful and happy ending.

That's why despite what many will call cheesy sentimentalism, this movie has a message. It's one of redemption, one of hope and an encouragement to those who have held fast to the challenge before them.

It is great wisdom couched in innocence.

You owe it to yourself to really stop for a couple of hours and soak in this movie.

And like George Bailey, you might find yourself looking back over this gift of adventure your life has been so far... and you could walk away thinking that it really has been a wonderful life.