It's A Wonderful Life...By the Folken Family

We Folkens stay entertained by e-mailing back and forth about our thoughts on different things that come up during our day, or that we are thinking about. This is a recent e-mail chain about the movie It's A Wonderful Life:

Chad: Did you guys ever think about It's A Wonderful Life? The whole story revolves around Clarence (the angel) showing George Bailey his life to talk him out of killing himself by throwing himself off the bridge. He shows him what the world would be like if George had never been born to show him how much he added to it. But at the end, George finds out that his friends scraped together the money to save him and his cause from financial ruin. Did you ever think that Clarence could have saved a lot of time if he just said, "Hey, your friends scraped together all the money you need to keep you from financial ruin, go on home now and God bless." Now wouldn’t that have saved a few hours of George's time and the shocks he encountered as he saw life without himself in it? Just something to think about :)

Ryan: Thank you for completely destroying my most favorate Christmas movie - now I'll never be able to watch it and say, "What a nice story." Now, all I'll be thinking about it is plain stupidity and dumbness. Thanks a lot Chad. Actually, because the angels didn't have God's omniscient knowledge, Clarence needed to go through the motions of getting George to accept his life willingly, even if it turned out poorly, because God chose not to reveal that to the angelic host that apparently is looking out over people.

Chad: You make a good point. Come to think of it, in the beginning of the movie when the stars were talking to each other Clarence wasn't told about the future, he was only told about the past.

Did it really teach George a good lesson? Why wouldn't George say, "Sure, life is much better to this point with me in it, but from here on out it is still better if they got the life insurance money." This all still does not answer the question about why George didn't get his view of life without him in it and why he didn't run back over to the bridge and jump without checking out the world without him in it.

Ryan: I've always been the greater Star Trek fan and thus having a special sense of ability when it comes to space-time continuum theory, I can confidently assert the following. When George saw what the lives around him looked like without him in it - he decided it was better for the other people for him to be in their lives. You see, he never really wanted to come back because he loved his life - it was because he loved the people around him and them having their lives. So, the first step in the process was getting Clarence to get his life back. Now, the only way he could do that would be to fake wanting to live again - he still wanted to commit suicide, but he had to say that he wanted to live. When he got his 'life' back, he was still going to jump but then that nosy police officer was there, "Do you know me??," thus kissing the police officer and trying to get him to leave him alone. But the police officer just stood there so he ran back home to suicide himself instead in the privacy of his own home, but then was again thrawrted in his attempt by so many people being there. Having received so much money - way more than he needed, "Hey listen everyone - we just got a telegram", "I heard George was in trouble - STOP - I have given permission to wire up to $25,000.00 - STOP - HEEHAWWW and Merry Christmas." Coming into a great amount of money convinced him to stay alive. I know that you might not have seen between the lines - but I have and if I've got to explain it to you, then maybe you need to watch it again, but a little closer this time! Have I spent too much time on this e-mail = yes. Do I want my life back that I spent writing this e-mail = yes. Clarence, where are you man???