My Guardian Angel, Clarissa

No matter how hard you try this Christmas Season, you're pretty much going to have to watch It's A Wonderful Life, whether you want to or not. In flush times, we find the strength to pass on it, but, in times we'd like to flush, like these, you are forgiven for watching it as many times as you like.

George Bailey, as played by Jimmy Stewart, is still standing on his bridge, frightened and staring down into the churning river below. He's an S + L guy: an honest provider of mortgages. If that sounds like a  science fiction character, it wasn't meant to be. Bailey is about as close to our banker boys as Beetle Bailey is to Transformers. He's standing on that bridge, life insurance policy in his coat pocket, because he believes, through logic twisted by pain,  that he is worth more to his family drowned than alive.

Millions of people are standing on that bridge with Bailey this year. They have been caught in a downward spiral of lost jobs, threatened health insurance, burned savings, stock market losses, lost home equity. And those are the solid citizens, who played by the rules!  Many may have suffered the added indignity of being totally ignored by HR assistants and recruiters, as they look for rare new jobs or clients, perhaps at half their old pay. They are on that bridge waiting for their emails, letters, calls and texts to be returned. They may be waiting for a celluloid while.

Okay, our story gets cheerier:  enter Clarence, George Bailey's hapless guardian angel, who dives into the river forcing Bailey to dive in to save him. Then, Clarence gives Bailey a tour of "Pottersville," as if he had never been born, in order to prove George's true value to friends and family. Mr. Potter represents some very bad things the world has to offer; he's Banker Bernie with a turban and a black suit, played by Lionel Barrymore.

Heaven must be a pretty busy place these days mustering up a surge-worth of guardian angels to help millions of people by stimulating their self-worth. Imagine long lines of angels being outfitted and parachuted (like Clarence, they have not yet earned wings) to earth.

And so we come to my own guardian angel, Clarissa. Unlike ragged Clarence, she speaks with a very posh Brit accent (Gordonstoun), wears tall heels and dark-rimmed glasses (whom did you think I would get?). Rather than tour the town to prove my true worth, she has helped me re-visit people and events I may have "misunderstood." We'd like to share:

• HR: they have 1,000 apps for 5 spots. Those have been promised to friends of senior management. Most of their time, they are worried about their own jobs. We should love them.
• Health Insurance: Max, Nancy, Harry and O mean well. Your butcher would like to sell prime at sausage prices too, but he can't. Neither can Congress and our CE-O. They need a hug.
• Albany: Have I mentioned how spectacularly smart Clarissa is? Even Clarissa didn't understand Albany, but it must have a purpose, she said, even if we cannot see it. Ah, faith of angels.
• The Deficit: According to Clarissa, her papa never had a dime, nor his papa, nor her mama's papa. It's normal not to pay clothing, wine, school or tax bills in her old culture. Cheers to that!
• Banks: Where Clarissa came from, only the dimmest, dullest boys got sent to run the banks. The smarties, whom girls loved best, became traders. Naturally, the dim boys couldn't keep up. This is simply Natural Selection. Learn to love nature's winners, even if they are smarmadukes.

I'm feeling better already, aren't you? It is a wonderful life after all.