Every Time a Bell Rings...

i come to you today a man prepared to eat his own words. for years, i've poo-pooed and spoken out against an American Christmas tradition. last night i finally broke down and watched It's a Wonderful Life, in it's entirety and cried like a premenstural woman.i don't mean i teared up idly at the smattering of sentiment. oh no. from the scene where George saves Harry on the frozen pond to the last dingle-dingle i openly wept, bordering on sobbing.

i was completely overcome by the message of "every man's life touches others'" and absolutley shocked. granted, over the last couple of years, i've become more moved by movies and tv shows. this i attribute to Stephen's influence. not to sound too cheesy, but before i met him i'd kinda shutdown emotionally (for which i can thank Shithead) for a couple of years. i was immune to the charm of movies, song lyrics and Hallmark commericals. then, after spending a week with Stephen, it was like all the walls tumbled down and i was as sensitive as a sore tooth. movie trailers, books, commercials, etc get me misty. it's almost pavlovian the way i react to cheap sentiment now. if it's sappy/schmaltzy/cheesy, i'll cry.

if you've never seen It's a Wonderful Life, you must live in an area where they do not have televisions, pop-culture or Christmas. if that's the case, you probably also don't have a PC and can't be reading this. on the off chance that somehow you've lived your life in complete isolation but managed to escape back into society and are reading this blog and now have access to a television, dvd player or vcr, i strongly suggest that you rent/borrow it. if you've seen it in the past and rolled your eyes at gobs of sentiment being tossed around like snowballs, i suggest you give it another chance. it may surprise you...