What Does Having A Wonderful Life Mean?

by Corinna Lawson

Christmas is bittersweet. It’s a time for reflection of how the year has gone. It’s also a time for traditions that tend to remind us of times past, not always for the good.

That’s why It’s a Wonderful Life is my favorite Christmas movie.

George Bailey is hanging on by his figurative fingertips. Nothing has gone as planned for his life. Twice he’s pulled back by responsibilities from his plans to escape the confines of Bedford Falls while others move on to great success. His honeymoon was ruined. He’s even stuck in Bedford Falls, almost helpless, while many of those he loves fight in a terrible war.

In his present, he has money troubles, he’s supporting a big family, he has to deal with his wastrel Uncle Billy, and now, it looks like he’s going to jail.

But even before his transformation, even before Clarence shows how horrible life would be for others, George isn’t bitter. He’s a loving father. He’s proud of his brother’s heroics. He helps the town bad girl in a rough time. He stands up for the citizens against the machinations of Mr. Potter, ensuring they have good, solid places to live.

But no one can carry all he does without despair and George nearly succumbs to it. What changes his attitude is not that Clarence shows him a life without all these challenges. No, what Clarence shows George is that he mattered. He saved Mr. Gower. He saved his brother and thus saved other lives. He brought life to Mary’s lonely life. He even saved Bedford Falls. He choose to do the right thing and lost personally, again and again, but it made all the difference in the world to his family and friends.

When George returns, his life hasn’t changed. He’s still facing jail. But that’s all right. His life hasn’t been in vain because he rescued others, even when he can’t rescue himself. He’s happy even knowing he’s going to jail. And, of course, everyone shows him they loved him and honor what he’s done. That’s great for him but his despair has vanished before that.

At the time the movie was made, America had just been through a horrible war. Everyone’s lives had been upended, broken, or remixed. This story said to them, essentially, that sucks. But what you did mattered. And now we move forward.

When I sat down to write my holiday novella, The Lost & the Found, I wasn’t consciously basing it on any story. But I knew, given my characters' backgrounds, that Christmas would be a hard time for them. I also knew that it should be a time of looking back at their lives and reconciling that past so they could look forward.

Grayson is reconnecting with his teenage daughter after a bitter divorce but then along comes his estranged father with shattering news: Grayson has a half-sister, meaning his father cheated on his late mother. Even worse, this sister has gone missing and he has to tamp down his anger at his father to work with him to save his new relative.

Trisha has no family to celebrate the holidays but she’s got a routine that suits her, especially working the holiday shifts at her newspaper so others can get time off. But then her past comes back too, in the person of a dying nun who once taught at the orphanage where Trisha grew up. One of Trisha’s former classmates is missing and the nun needs to find her, desperately.

The last thing Trisha wants to do is dive into her past, especially at the behest of a nun who let church officials close the orphanage and sent her into foster care. But curiosity and affection for her old classmate overcomes her reluctance.

Trisha and Grayson are working two different sides of the same case. Eventually, even though they don’t meet until Above the Fold, they help each other, and they help those from their past.

It’s closure, of a sort, so they can move forward without bitterness. The past is, in a way, reclaimed, just as George Bailey reclaims his past and accepts his present with a light heart.

It’s a Wonderful Life is a timeless story. Despite being set in 1983, I believe The Lost & the Found is timeless too.

They speak to us now, especially in the times we’re living in. Life is certainly not going to plan. Horrible, messed up events are happening. But what we each do personally, even if it’s a sacrifice, is going to matter. Acts of kindness and support and love matter. 

That’s what having a wonderful life means.

I hope you all spend your holidays with those that matter to you.

Corrina Lawson is an award-winning journalist turned fiction writer. Her books tend to focus on romance, but her subgenres are all over the place and include romantic suspense, superhero romance, erotic romance, and steampunk romantic mysteries. (Not to mention an upcoming medieval romance for Turn the Page Publishing.)  You can follow her on Facebook or Bluesky.