There are some people whose absence is more deeply felt than their presence. They don't light the room on fire when they walk into it because they are busy doing something far more vital. Without these people, the room doesn't get built or rented or heated in the first place, and nobody gets invited.
These necessary people quietly make it all happen, not through bureaucratic genius but through collegiality, intelligence, stubbornness, hard work, and vision with a lowercase "v." They constantly put it all on the line so that there can be a line.
This, I think, was the central insight of the Frank Capra Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life. George Bailey may not seem like much, says the director, but think again. Take a good look at the world that would exist had the Bailey Building and Loan president never been born. It is not a nice place.
Critics constantly and lazily remark on the movie's sentimentality and corniness, which only convinces me they aren't paying attention. The movie is dark. Death, suicide, violence, poverty, loss, and sacrifice are major themes. Sure, it has a happy ending, with little Lulu and an angel getting its wings and all that, but that doesn't seem foreordained.
I'm thinking about It's a Wonderful Life because it's that time of the year again and because, today, my father Bob Lott is 60. Sometimes I think of the old man as George Bailey minus the drama. Bob Lott is a Baptist minister, a father of three, and a man with the knowledge and determination to make things happen -- often at great personal cost.
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