Jamie Lee Curtis
Posted December 24, 2008 | 05:44 PM (EST)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-lee-curtis/it-iisi-a-wonderful-life_b_151856.htmlIn It's a Wonderful Life, the classic holiday film, the hero, George Bailey, saved the small, family Savings and Loan that his father started from a run by nervous investors, convincing them to take out only what they needed, that if they stuck together, they could avert the failing of the business. He became a local hero and the fat cat, Potter, who wanted the institution to fail was thwarted. When, by accident (actually theft) all of the deposits are lost and he realizes that the Savings and Loan would now have to go under and Potter would win, George wished he had never been born. When an angel comes to show him what the world would have been like without him and he is shown what his one human life accomplished, the people he helped, that he was a wonderful son, brother, husband, father, friend and community member, he and we all are all reminded about our own unique power and generosity.
Many Americans are now feeling that pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization of financial loss and despair and many are facing financial ruin, only now the real Potter is a scumbag named Madoff whose greed and avarice is beyond words. Many men and women are feeling the shame and fear and anguish. I'm sure many have wondered if the world would be better off without them, that the judgments made about subprime loans and the lies that they were fed about them, were their fault and failures -- theirs alone. They are not alone.
I don't know if we should bail out the broken auto industry. Now that gas is back down are we all going to go back to business as usual? Go out and buy a big guzzler just to keep the broken thing creaking along. Is that real help? I don't know. Is loading up our plastic really going to help? Is debt the answer? I don't think so.
What I do know is that we are fat. Obese. See WALL-E. That is the future. We have fat lifestyles, fat habits, fat minds and arteries. Last week, Obama said that it was going to get worse but that we would emerge, leaner and meaner..I don't think lean is mean...it just rhymes. Lean is healthy. Most of us eat too much, super sized lives and meals. My four words to a better life, brand new, self-help/beauty/how-to book is being published right here on the Huffington Post, downloadable for free -- right here, right now.