A quick note of thanks

We saw “It’s a Wonderful Life” on a December afternoon at the Bear Tooth Theatrepub and Grill in Spenard.

Everything went according to plan until just after George Bailey rescued his guardian angel from the raging waters near Bedford Falls and George and Clarence dried out in the caretaker’s shed.

Perhaps one or two people in the audience had not seen the film before. They didn’t understand why the people in the seats gasped when the very next moment of the film showed Jimmy Stewart running through the snowy streets of Bedford Falls screaming Merry Christmas. He was overjoyed for no apparent reason.

The seamy scenes of the bitter folks in Pottersville had been erased, depriving the audience of Director Frank Capra’s look at how the world would have looked had George Bailey never been born.

It was like jingle without bells, White Christmas minus the snow or Rudolph with a standard-issue nose.

The audience booed a bit when the film ended and lots of people stood in line to get their money back in the crowded lobby.

The music and culture critic in our family said it reminded him of the bank run sequence in which the depositors at the Bailey Bros. Building & Loan clamored to get their money back as George handed over the money saved for a honeymoon.

The staff at the Bear Tooth handled things well. They managed the situation with diplomatic skill, apologies and free movie tickets, but had no ready explanation for why the portion of the movie in which George Bailey learns what a wonderful life he had was deleted from “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

It turns out the theater had mistakenly run a butchered version of the movie assembled with no thought given to the story and distributed by Amazon as a wonderful product.

Never mind all that. This experience was a great gift, one that would not have happened had the unbutchered movie been shown that day. I will never forget this version of George Bailey’s wonderful life.

I first saw this movie nearly 50 years ago on a visit to Seattle, even though it was a television staple because the copyright had expired and TV stations ran it countless times because it was free.

The heavy exposure helped create its lasting popularity. The film had flopped in 1946.

The lesson about taking a moment to give thanks for the gift of life is one that I’ve never entirely forgotten, even though it may drift out of mind from time to time.

There are lots of other things I could write about today, but I’ve decided to keep it simple and just say thanks.

I am grateful to everyone who takes the time to wade through what you find in this space and finds something to think about or argue about. Enjoyment might be too much to expect, but miracles appear in the strangest of places, as Willie Nelson put it.

I am fully aware that some people have yet to see things the way I do, a situation that will never change. A lifetime of work as a newspaperman has left me with a limited skillset, I have to confess. I enjoy it, however, and think of it as a hobby, never a chore.

I appreciate the hundreds of people who have supported me in one way or another and help keep me going with emails, letters, ideas and donations.

While at times I feel as burdened as Marley’s ghost, forced to haul the chains I’ve forged in life, those are passing moments and they never last.

Thank you.