In the 1946 movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart, is admired for all he does for his family and his community. However, he does not find the same value in what he has done and suffers severe depression, even wanting to end his life.
Why is it that someone who has done so much good would not be able to see it? Honestly, it comes down to choices – and particularly choices that we didn’t make. You see we begin life with thousands of choices at our finger tips. We can choose who we will date as well as who we won’t or even whether we will at all. We can make career choices, ranging from being a farmer, to working as an attorney, to teaching special education students.
But what about choices we don’t make? This is where we often find regrets. We watch the lives of others and wish we had their house, or their car, or their mate. But what is interesting is that we don’t want to be them. We want to be ourselves, but having made different choices. But the reality is, as one writer stated, “We can only be one person, and we can only be that person once.”
I have known lots of people who are thin but want to be thinner; are financially comfortable but aren’t satisfied and want more; that have a job where they make a difference in the lives of other people but minimize their impact. And guess what happens? They are anxious and unhappy.
Author Andrew Miller states that in the movie, the angel Clarence works to encourage George “to give up thoughts of other lives and to make a home in his own.” Maybe that is the message that we need to hear. Rather than spend our lives regretting the fact that we didn’t make different choices, perhaps we should accept ourselves and our own real lives and live them to the max! If we will, it can be a wonderful life.