How many remember that movie? The original one? I will never forget that movie. For those completely uneducated, poor souls who have not seen the movie, the gist is this:
One man, grows up, marries his childhood sweatheart, becomes the town's bank manager, has a bunch of kids and lives in an old house that's in constant need of repair. Cue music. Enter THE BAD GUY. He's a money person who has stolen the days money when your family/employee who's a little short on bricks, drops it. There's a run on his bank and everything's falling apart.
His Friends are all moving up in the world, off to fight in wars, be heros, or getting rich in the big city. He begins to feel worthless and like it would have been better if he'd never lived at all. He's sincerely contemplating suicide during an unprecedented drunk, when an angel gives him his wish.
Not only does the angel tell him he has never lived, he shows our hero how different the town would have been without him. What happens? His brother dies in a ice skating accident where previously, the hero had saved him. Another person dies because he wasn't there to stop the chemist from making an accident when the chemist was having a very bad day. No one was there to stop the bad guy and the small town with just a hint of city turns into mobville.
There are no more affordable housing loans, no more mom and pop stores. It's Reno on bad Steroids with the head mobster as the leading man. His wife is a spinster. It goes on. This one man, who felt as if his life didn't matter, had slowly, just by being him, by being nice, caring, changed the outlook of an entire town. The ripple effect.
In the end, he cries for his life back, and even the knob that falls off the staircase railing is precious to him. The whole town pitches in to cover the loss of money stolen by Potter (the bad guy) and saves his Christmas.
Kindness matters. You matter. The little things you did to say, you can do this to someone, or RT a fellow author, or critiqued a work for someone, all those things matter. You'd be surprised at how many people are able to pay it forward.
This post is dedicated to Anne-Mhairi Simpson. She and I have had our differences. Both been mad, scathing, even about something, but like true family, found our way back to each other. She's my CP. But most of all, she allowed me to run with her. She's scads and scads of miles away from me, since she lives in England and I live in Western US, but she still helps me to get moving and we run at the same time.
It's inspired my son to walk/run with me. He's already lost weight and is well on his way to stregthening his lungs so asthma shouldn't be able to him back at all. And last night, my husband says, he may have to quit smoking since the rest of his family is getting healthier...
However long it lasts, each smoke he doesn't have because of the ripple effect, matters. So thank you. Thank you for being there. For mattering.
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