A Classic Film’s Timeless Lessons
by Jack Guarnieri, Jersey Jack Pinball & PinballSales.com
The 1946 Frank Capra classic, It’s a Wonderful Life, is on my yearly to-watch list around Christmas time. It’s a feel-good movie with some twists and turns and valuable life lessons that can resonate differently for each person. (If you haven’t lately, I’d suggest you watch it again, and if you’ve never seen it, do yourself a favor and add it to your must-see list.)
In the movie, George Bailey had big hopes and dreams of getting out of Bedford Falls and going on to bigger and better things. As he tells his movie sweetheart, he would lasso the moon! However, through circumstances that are out of his control, George never does make it out of that town.
George suffered silently from a poor self-image and mental health issues. Desperate after money went missing from his family business, he went to a bridge, planning to kill himself. But, his guardian angel, Clarence, jumped into the water before George could do so himself. True to his character of always putting others first, George dove in to rescue Clarence, and then confesses to his angel that he wished he’d never been born. Clarence gets the okay to grant this wish, and what follows is example after example of how vastly different life in Bedford Falls would be without George Bailey.
Through this journey and perhaps the first time in his life, George Bailey sees what a difference he made in his “wonderful life.” Actions, both big and small, yield results, and it seems that most of us are connected in one way or another. We know a kind word or good deed can go a long way, though we may never know just how far those ripples travel.
We all wonder from time to time, “What if?” It’s a natural thought even when not attached to deep feelings of regret, anger or doubt. It’s interesting to look back wistfully and wonder about all the “what ifs” in your life. What if you turned left instead of right, went to this school instead of that one, or moved to one neighborhood instead of another? One different choice, and everything would be different.
It is something to think about. What person did you meet or what life event pulled you into our industry? Maybe you were a visiting accountant at a game distributor. Maybe your uncle knew a guy looking for some seasonal help. Perhaps you answered a help-wanted ad for a pinball mechanic in the newspaper you found on the seat of a subway car.
Now, think about the ripples you’ve made – and are making – in your life and in the industry. Think about your own wonderful life.
While George Bailey teaches us valuable lessons, so does that old curmudgeon Mr. Potter. Always the spoiler, he was buying when everyone else was selling, a miserable cheater only focused on money.
George Bailey helped just about everyone in town without putting himself first, and when he was in trouble, those people turned out to help him. His younger brother, the town hero, toasted him on Christmas Eve, and George really was the richest man in town.
At the movie’s end, we see Clarence’s inscription to George in a copy of Tom Sawyer: “Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends.” That you’re reading this now means it truly is a wonderful life! Thanks, friend!
Jack Guarnieri started servicing electromechanical pinball machines in 1975 and has been involved in every phase of the amusement game business since then. He was an operator in NYC, then began a distributorship in 1999, PinballSales.com, selling coin-op to the consumer market. In January of 2011, he founded Jersey Jack Pinball (named after his RePlay Magazine pen name), which builds award-winning, full-featured, coin-op pinball machines. Email Jack at jack@jerseyjackpinball.com.