"Look Daddy. Paste it."

"Look Daddy. Paste it."

It is an innocent, heart-felt request from a little girl of about 4 years old. Something she loves has broken and she wants her dad to fix it.

Dad and the deck project.

Most of us have done this. We have asked our fathers to fix something. When we were young, we looked up to our fathers as magical beings. They could do anything. Somehow, they could do the impossible and it always left us with a sense of awe and wonder. As we grew older and needed more adult help - like replacing a hot water heater or building a deck or replacing a roof, or fixing a garbage disposal, we knew dad could help. And he never let us down.

Now that I'm older, I realize that I didn't pay nearly enough attention to the lessons. I can't solder two copper pipes together to save my life. Dad tried to show me how. I just took it for granted that he would always be here to do it, and I wouldn't have to know how to do it myself. That was short-sighted. It makes me wonder what life lessons I missed or screwed up on.

I was a bit of a block-head that way. People tried to teach me things and I didn't really learn from it. If 40-year-old me could go back and talk to 12-year-old me, I'd box my own ears, get in my own face and tell my self to learn something.

The good news is that in a way, I can still heed that late lesson. I still have the opportunity to follow the advice of Sweet Caporal cigarettes:

Source: http://www.alwaysjacked.com/2013/02/how-brands-and-dad-bloggers-should-work-together/

In the mean time, I realize that I'm a dad now and my kids are reaching the age that I can start teaching them how to do stuff. And I find myself praying that they will listen and learn better than I did.

I also keep my fingers crossed that there is no immediate need to enlist dad's aid on any more large crisis-type projects.

I CAN tell my dad thank you. I didn't listen as much as I should have, but that doesn't mean I didn't appreciate it, or that I don't love you.

Or as George tells his dad, "Pop, do you want a shock? I think you're a great guy." Happy Father's Day.

Blogging From A to Z - T is for "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"

Welcome to the It's A Wonderful Blog's Blogging From A to Z April (2015) Challenge. For this challenge, I will post every day in April (except for Sundays) about topics related to the Frank Capra/Jimmy Stewart film, It's a Wonderful Life.

"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star":

A traditional children's song became the equivalent of a text message or tweet in a classic 1940s film.

Vintage sheet music for "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."
Source: http://bit.ly/19epRxl

In It's a Wonderful Life, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is played on a xylophone ... or possibly a toy piano ... to indicate communication between angels.

The first time we hear the tune, Joseph pages Clarence. He sends a message in the form of the first seven notes of this childhood song.

Just before he is told to do that, Joseph's boss (see my entry on the letter B to learn the identity of the boss) tells him that Clarence has “got the faith of a child — simple.”

This is a hugely important factor in why "Twinkle Twinkle" was used as the tune to communicate between angels in the film.

In the Bible, Jesus addresses the innocence and faith of children:

“'Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?' Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. Then he said, 'I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.'" (Matthew 18:1-4)

Clarence has the faith of a child because we are all called to have the faith of a child. Jesus tells us that if we do so, we will have access to Heaven. And when we get there, we will be angels. According to this logic then, all angels have the faith of a child. So it is fitting that a children's lullaby would be their communication system - or at least represent communication between angels.

It is also an appropriate song because whenever a star or a solar system talks, it twinkles. We can hear them talk when they are together because they are together. The song is a paging system, or a text message. We hear it only when angels are not together. It is their method of long-distance communication, like a text message or a tweet.

To reinforce the idea of the childlike faith, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is sung to the same tune as the "ABC Song."

We hear the tune another time, during the Pottersville sequence. After George and Clarence are thrown out of Nick's Bar, George decides to search for answers by himself and leaves Clarence behind. Alone, Clarence begins to talk to Joseph. We can hear his words because he is on Earth - even if he is in an alternate version of our world. When Joseph replies, it comes to us as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."

Although hear the tune instead of the music, we know that Joseph asks Clarence if he drank anything in the bar, to which Clarence strongly responds, "No, I didn't have a drink!"

Blogging From A to Z - F is for Frank and Faith

Welcome to the It's A Wonderful Blog's Blogging From A to Z April (2015) Challenge. For this challenge, I will post every day in April (except for Sundays) about topics related to the Frank Capra/Jimmy Stewart film, It's a Wonderful Life.

Frank Capra:
Frank Capra used the same themes in many of his films:

Frank Capra.
Source: http://alsolikelife.com/shooting/2009/
12/991-123-lost-horizon-1937-frank-capra/

• Fighting for the little man - Whether the main character was the little man or was the one who did the fighting for the little man, the important part was that they were protected somehow.
• Each person's life touches so many other lives - We saw it in It's a Wonderful Life, You Can't Take it With You, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, and many more. There is an argument to be made that this message can be found in just about every film ever made by anyone. After all, we don't live in a vacuum.
• No man is a failure - We each struggle, but if we persevere, we can't fail. Failure is a condition of a disease. The disease is called quitting. It reminds me of that saying that "everyone is special." We are. Not everyone ate the same piece of food, sat in the very same chair and looked in the same directions. Even twins are unique.
• There are so many more that will explore them in future blog posts.
• Get The Premiere Frank Capra Collection and watch those. You will see what I mean.

Faith
If you don't see the faith aspect in It's a Wonderful Life, you need to go watch it again. Faith is EVERYWHERE.

The Frank Capra Collection
Source: http://www.dvdactive.com/news/
releases/frank-capra-collection.html

• It starts with prayer
• Then it moves to Heaven and a discussion among angels.
• George's guardian angel is sent to help him.
• George prays for redemption.
• It is everywhere. Don't fight it. Embrace it. I fought it for a long, long time. I didn't start paying attention to it until January, 2015. You don't have to be religious to see it or appreciate it. Capra's vision of angels and Heaven isn't exactly Biblical. There is some creative license in there. So breathe easy and enjoy it.

Capra's vision of Heaven.