No man is a failure.

Every bench in Central Park has a story, all beginning with a dedication, this one’s : ⁣

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“No man is a failure who has friends⁣

A seat to share in the city you love⁣

For Anthony Abenante on your 40th”⁣

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The first time I saw ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’  I was 23 years old.

I knew of it of course, saw snippets on TV but had deemed the whole thing outdated, trivial, and too much of a Sci-Fi for my taste. Sean— my boyfriend at the time— suggested we see it together on a date night. ⁣ ⁣

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As the story unfolds, I recognize the, “you want the moon, Mary?” sequence from a Rom Com I'd seen a year or so before.

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I understand the cold and the heat of drinking and the love George has for Mary but perhaps more than anything, I understand not being able to understand. ⁣

He’s about to kill himself right? That moment the Jolly Angel is drowning? In either scenario though, George jumps in. Only, without someone ELSE to fight for, the assumption is he goes cold. ⁣

The manifestational block is one George and I share. ⁣

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His life is extraordinary because of everything he’s not: the secrets he keeps, the money he shares, the woman he loves, and the country he serves squander the ‘titan’ he could have been. Handsome enough to be a common banker, husband, father and subject to the fat-cat greed he could have lived inside of. ⁣

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Debt and money are difficult for me to endow.

Life, need, hunger— my own and others are, collectively, more obvious priorities, right? ⁣

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Often, for ourselves, enough looks like very little and most of the time we have it. It stands to reason then, that being witness to need would compel us to give everything excess of our own base necessity. ⁣⁣

We don't do that.

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In fact, capitalism, conditions us to the contrary; tells us more is more and converts any less met need we have into blame.

George demonstrates a valiancy so impactful it's endured close to a hundred years. He reminds us that a temperament able to empathically intuit when it is important to override individual and collective conditioning, is not degenerate or foolish or unsuccessful but rather, is the kind of spirit God, personally, sends his most trusted angels to protect.