The Richest Man in Town
What we have to give to each other.
Every time I watch It’s a Wonderful Life, I’m brought to tears when George Bailey (James Stewart), a man who thinks he’s given away everything only to end up with nothing, realizes that his selflessness and sacrifice have improved countless lives and provided him with more love than he can imagine.
While It’s a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol are both about spirits who come down to change the course of one man’s life, the latter always smacks of extreme fantasy. The “hero” of A Christmas Carol isn’t Scrooge, who realizes being a cold-hearted miser has left him lonely and abhorred; it’s probably Tiny Tim, a child who should resent the world given his poverty and poor health, but instead continues to love others and make their world brighter.
It’s a Wonderful Life doesn’t try to convince us that the wealthy only need to be shown the error of their ways and that the villainous Henry F. Potter (Lionel Barrymore) is an epiphany away from being a decent person. It’s a Wonderful Life is a movie born not only out of World War II but also The Great Depression when the Potters of the world rendered the country destitute. The narrative doesn’t concern itself with Potter’s fortunes because it knows how calcified he is in his avarice. Producer and director Frank Capra made a movie for the rest of us: those who aren’t wealthy and will likely never be wealthy, but that doesn’t make us poor.
The wealth of George Bailey is on my mind as American oligarchs are on the move while leaving a desperate nation behind them. And sure, when you see how much the wealthy spend on themselves while leaving schoolteachers to scramble for supplies or children to accrue lunch debt, it’s easy to despair. It’s easy to be George Bailey on that bridge, feeling like no matter how much you’ve done, none of it matters. I was certainly feeling that way after Election Day, plunging into nihilism and self-pity.
But we have not reached the end of history, and the future is not set. No good will come from catastrophizing, and we should remember that for all the power they have, guys like Donald Trump and Elon Musk are pathetic. They take little interest in their own families. They have sycophants rather than friends. They spend their days angrily sending out messages on social media, flailing at enemies they see everywhere because they don’t have a loved one in sight. I don’t necessarily feel sorry for people like this, but I certainly don’t envy them.
2024 has been a particularly tough year for me. There was all the stress of the election and its outcome. I still haven’t found full-time employment (although I suppose it was oddly comforting that one former manager told me, “It’s a shit show out there.”). But much harder was losing three friends at various points in the year. They all brought such joy to everyone lucky enough to know them, and we lost them far too soon. The world feels a little dimmer without them in it.
In times like these, we need to lean on each other and not believe that everyone is in it for themselves or that every person is too selfish to help another. We’ll need to balance self-care with selflessness, and that will look different for everyone. Just because nihilists are having a moment, that doesn’t mean we have to join them. We can realize, like George Bailey, how much we have not because we amassed wealth but because we found a way to give to others.
For those reading this, I want you to know how much you’ve given to me this year. I know it’s easy to feel isolated during the holidays and that this can be a hard time for people. But whether you’re a free subscriber or paying for a subscription, I want you to know how grateful I am that you take the time to read my stuff. I’ve been a professional writer for almost twenty years now, and yet I’m still surprised whenever anyone tells me, “I read your latest piece.” Simply by being a reader, you’ve given me more than I can repay.
If I may ask a bit more during the holidays, I encourage you to give a little something away. Spend some time reaching out to a loved one you haven’t spoken to in a while. Donate to a charity. And then perhaps set a reminder to keep doing that in the new year. In the words of George Bailey’s father, “All that you can take with you is that which you’ve given away.”
And, if at all possible, don’t trust your absent-minded uncle with the bank deposits.
Recommendations
I don’t want to say I’ve completely given up on legacy media, but I think in the years ahead, we’re going to see how their interests and that of the public interest will continue to diverge. When you’ve got the Executive Editor of The New York Times bristling at any criticism whatsoever, then you can’t trust that a major outlet is going to reexamine how it covers elections or trans rights.
As always, Margaret Sullivan continues to be one of the best voices in media, and I like her practical steps for what we can do as followers of the news. Finding voices you trust, as always, is tricky since a lot of people trust the wackiest things, but I do like her advice on supporting local journalism. For my part, I donate to Decaturish, which keeps me up to date on what’s happening in my city.
What I’m Watching
Every year, I try to find a few new-to-me Christmas movies during the holiday season. The best this year was Vincent Minnelli’s 1944 musical Meet Me in St. Louis. It’s one of those movies you know even if you haven’t seen it since you’ve likely heard its numbers “The Trolley Song” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” The story concerns a family in St. Louis in 1903, and I love how Minnelli embraces the warmth, chaos, and love between the characters without ever turning it saccharine. It’s also fascinating to view it as a wartime picture that conveys a sense of Americana and “What we’re fighting for” without ever coming off as jingoistic propaganda.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, there’s the lousy Silent Night, which I had higher hopes for, considering it was John Woo’s first American movie in twenty years. Sadly, despite the neat idea of having no dialogue, it’s basically Death Wish with a gimmick tacked on as a grieving father (Joel Kinnaman) goes on a mission of revenge against the gangbangers who killed his son. Woo still has some action chops, but between this and his disappointing remake of The Killer, it feels like the genre has left him behind.
What I’m Reading
I finally finished Frankenstein. I say “finally,” not because it’s a difficult read but because I hit an extreme reading slump this year. In 2025, I’m going to need to be a bit more disciplined and probably set reading hours rather than page goals since some books are speedier reads than others.
In other reads:
Johnny Carson and the Fantasy of America by Jason Zinoman [The New York Times] - It’s funny how Johnny Carson looms so large over the comedy landscape, but as Zinoman points out, that comedy was frequently laced with cruelty and its popularity bolstered by “What else are you going to watch at this hour?” Carson was not a nice man, and while perhaps stepping off the stage never to return bolstered his legacy, he also never seemed to enjoy the job that much. As we move into a world where late-night television fades away, I can’t help but compare Carson to someone like Conan O’Brien, who has not only retained his audience despite the upheavals in his career but continued to evolve and deepen his comedy.
Here’s why North Carolina is going to regret hiring Bill Belichick by Stewart Mandel [The Athletic] - The fact that Bill Belichick, one of the NFL’s winningest coaches, couldn’t find a head coaching role in the NFL after parting ways with the Patriots should set off alarm bells. No one wanted to work with this guy, and his style of coaching likely has no place in today’s league. What worked twenty years ago with Tom Brady probably won’t transfer to younger talents. To assume that it will work in college is laughable, and Mandel does a good job of pointing out why North Carolina made a huge mistake hiring a “name” rather than understanding why Belichick would be successful for their program. On the plus side, we’re probably going to get some hilarious recruiting stories out of this.
The delusion of Amazon Haul by Mia Soto [The Verge] - I do not understand the obsession with junk that Mia Soto says Americans have. I certainly amass a lot of stuff, but it’s mostly books and movies. Even with video games, I largely now buy digital so that I have less stuff lying around. So I’m bewildered by this contingent that exists where they want a “deal” that means spending money on low-quality items. Anyway, this is an interesting article about how Amazon is trying to cut in on Temu and Shein’s business of selling poorly made goods to people.
Woody Johnson’s Jets: ‘Madden’ ratings, a lost season and ‘the most dysfunctional place imaginable’ by Zack Rosenblatt, Dianna Russini, and Michael Silver [The Athletic] - Easily one of the funniest sports stories of the year (perhaps less funny if you’re a Jets fan, but you must know what you signed up for at this point). The details in this story are gold from owner Woody Johnson having a teenage son named “Brick,” to accepting the advice of that son and his brother on player acquisitions based on player scores in Madden to Woody asking that people refer to him as “Ambassador” even though he doesn’t hold that title anymore to the knowledge that the Jets will continue to be an absolute disaster because Johnson is a numbskull. As my brother pointed out, sports is a weird business where you can put a terrible product out to the masses, but rather than the business shutting down, it can shamble along indefinitely.
What I’m Hearing
I love a rock band with female lead vocals, so I’ve been listening to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs recently. I wouldn’t say they’re an all-time favorite, but I also can’t deny the power of Karen O’s voice.
What I’m Playing
I’m futzing around with Pentiment, which has a gorgeous art style. I’m also pondering what game I want to start in the new year. I’ve got a massive backlog, and I suppose it’s a good thing that there’s nothing on my radar in the spring that demands my time.
Matt, your end of the year reviews are very moving. I am looking for and finding guidance in all such messages of not just hope, but how to resist surrender and embrace love, light, and the power of the "little guy." I am retranslating a few hundred folktales from Mbeere, Kenya, that I collected over 50 years ago. There are at least 100 trickster tales, where the small clever animal out"foxes" the big ones. We have always, it seems, told such tales.