And I’ve been reflecting on the year that is nearly done passing. It’s been a rough and hard one at that for a great portion of our country, as well as for my small family. We are marking six months now since there’s been steady work for Spurg. The savings are gone and things are tight. The unemployment rate in our area has hit 12.4% which is nearly double the national average. This should be a sad and depressing holiday season for us, but we are saved simply because George Bailey does exist.

Why George Bailey?, you may ask. Many of you do know that name, the fictional lead character from the old 1940’s movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”. A man who always believed in helping his fellow man, someone who always did what was right, not because it would make him rich, but because it was the right thing to do. George Bailey has been popping up all over the news, going by completely different names. He is the man who is unemployed, but took his unemployment check and bought $1,300 in $10 gift cards to pass out to complete strangers (Walmart became our hated villain in this). He is the company known as Lance, Inc., who bought Archway cookies at a bankruptcy sale. Archway in Ohio employed 300 workers who went to work one day and found that not only had they lost their jobs, but all benefits as well. Lance Inc., came in, gave every laid off employee from Archway $1,500 each on prepaid debit cards, re-opened the factory, hired 60 of the former employees at their last pay scale, with the seniority they had acquired under the former company and gave them full health benefits starting on day one. They also plan on hiring back more of the former employees as production increases. He is the Kellogg company who stepped in and bought all the trademarks and recipes for Mother’s Cookies with plans to continue producing the most popular cookies from the mother’s line up. He is the bank who decided to run a contest and forgive a single month of morgage payments for 250 families to the tune of nearly $850,000. He is all of those who go out every year and pass out their own money to the less fortunate in the spirit of the Secret Santa’s. He is the El Dorado Elf on Los Angeles’ Skid Row. He is the Minnesota Angel who gave $1,000,000 to fire victims.. He is one of my dear friends who has started a group last year knitting for those who needed some warm garments to wear during the long cold months on a Sioux Indian Reservation. He is every person who quietly, anonymously and with out fanfare, helps out another in any way that they can.

Sure,  there are still the Mr. Potter’s of the world.. greedy old men who make the Grinch look like a pussy cat. The Mr. Potter’s of the world are enough to destroy the spirit of those who can least afford it, and even the spirit and heart of dear old George Bailey himself. But as long as George Bailey lives, Mr. Potter can never win. So to all the George Bailey’s who believe in doing what is not only right, but also in doing what they can to help their fellow man, woman, and child, even at their own expense. He lives within each of us, he is the best of what mankind can be, if we have a mind to… and even as a fictional character, he serves as an inspiration on how each of us can truly make a difference, whether we know it or not, in some one else’s life.

This Christmas Eve, this long and silent night, I am thankful for all the George Bailey’s out there. For each one puts a dent in the doom and gloom that seems to be enveloping our world each day. Yes, these are hard times for our little planet.. and some places have it worse than others. There are families going with out, scrimping by on what they can.. but there is hope as long as kindness, goodness and decent human beings still exist. Thank you to all the George Bailey’s that walk among us each and every day. You are more special to every day strangers than you can ever hope to know. Have a very Merry Christmas!