Our Wonderful Lives

Published June 5, 2013 in the Foothills Sun-Gazette

     Last week I wrote about a conversation I had with a good friend, whose comment "We're not going to give up our good lives," had laid a bombshell in my lap.  Sunday I told him I'd written a column trying to dig myself out of the crater it made.

     Never wanting to harm anyone, he was chagrined and apologetic.  A scholarly man, as we talked looking for a better answer, he said "Remember the myth of Sisyphus."

    Philosophy's not my strong suit, so I confessed my memory problem.  He sketched out the story of a man trying to push a giant boulder up a mountain, clearly impossible.  He noted, however, that Sisyphus was at his finest when he was trying.  I saw the similarities but found the metaphor of futility discouraging.

     At some point the conversation shifted from Us ("We're not going to give up our good lives,") to Them:  "They're not going to give up their power until they're forced to," he said, meaning the Big Boys of California agriculture.  The implication was that working to wrest power back is so huge that it isn't worth giving up a portion of our good lives to do it.

     Then it hit me.  "Christianity turns the Greeks on their heads," I said, knowing my brain had taken a leap.  He blinked and asked me to explain.  "If you try to save your life, you'll lose it.  But if you lose your life, you'll have life everlasting."  We let the dust settle and promised to think more about it.

     Thinking about it this morning, I stumbled into George Bailey in "It's a Wonderful Life."  We see it as a Christmas movie, but it's about a guy who puts himself between greed and the interests of ordinary people who would be hurt if greed was allowed to have its way.  Where George entered my thoughts was the moment when it looks like he's lost the battle.  He suddenly sees his life as a failure, feels his sacrifices have been for nothing.  He gave up the good life in order to serve the people of his community, and now it's all gone.  In a swirling Christmas snowstorm, he prepares to jump off a bridge.

     Clarence the Angel shows him what his community would have been if he had not stood between greed and his people, if he had not witnessed to goodness with his life.  Greed, which has a seed in all of us, had had intercourse with the folks in his town and the people were sour, the town was in ruins.  It's what would have happened if George had left to become an architect and have a good life.  That bad vision shows George that his life as a member of the eternal Community is really quite wonderful after all.

     Some might dispute my interpretation, but I think that's all Jesus meant.  When called, we stand against greed for goodness' sake, giving up opportunities for the good life in order that the common good might thrive.  In the process, we receive a wonderful life.  It doesn't get any better than that.
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Trudy Wischemann is a writer who tries to live the wonderful life in Lindsay.  You can send her your wonderful life stories to P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a comment below.