Writers Write

The Year of Encouragement

Near the end of every year, I watch “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and I cry all the way through the movie (but they are good tears). Frank Capra (the director) said it was his favorite movie. Jimmy Stuart (the main character of George Bailey) said it was his favorite role. It was set in motion by a short story by Philip Van Doren Stern called, “The Greatest Gift.” When several publishers rejected the short story, Stern created a pamphlet of the story and mailed it out as a Christmas card. 

There are a lot of great lines from the movie, but here is one I treasure:

• Senior angel: A man down on Earth needs our help.

• Clarence: Is he sick?

• Senior angel: No, worse. He’s discouraged.

I like to assign a name to each year, so for 2021, I decided that I would name it “The Year of Encouragement.” I had no sooner decided on this designation than my Surface laptop stopped working. I guess that left me “Out on a Limb,” Kenneth Cole.

I have tons of short stories, essays, poems, nonfiction articles, and partially-written novels on that laptop. I’ve tried every trick in the book that I could find on the internet, but nothing has helped. In fact, I finished a book of poetry that I had started working on uploading to KDP for a Kindle version and a paperback version.

Instead, I’m writing this column for the first time on my desktop Mac. This new year started out with a challenge to my “Year of Encouragement.” I, however, have decided to react by being scrappy and simply move along (although I do plan to have a technician try to fix the Surface. I’m not that willing to let all my work go).

When I was in 7th grade, I had an English teacher that loved poetry, and she especially loved the following poem now in the public domain: 

                                          Jenny Kiss’d Me by Leigh Hunt

• Jenny kiss’d me when we met,
  Jumping from the chair she sat in;
  Time, you thief, who love to get
  Sweets into your list, put that in!
  Say I’m weary, say I’m sad,
  Say that health and wealth have miss’d me,
  Say I’m growing old, but add,
  Jenny kiss’d me.

I love the line that calls Time a thief. There are several physicists who think (or thought, before time took them from Earth) that time is an illusion, including Albert Einstein and Carlo Rovelli. Swiss physicist Nicolas Gisin, however, questions that time is an illusion. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/04/passage-of-time-relativity-physics/609841/

Also, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 tells us:

• To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

• A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

• A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

• A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

• A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

• A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

• A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

• A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

I have experienced many of these times in the past year. I mourned, wept, and broke down when I was unable to attend my older brother’s funeral because I had a broken arm and was unable to drive. (There’s an old, blurry photo of my brother below). He died unexpectedly while he was hospitalized for surgery the next day.

Then, I went through a time of healing for my arm. I also laughed and danced every time OU won a tough football game. These COVID years have been a time to refrain from embracing. Depending on your age, you may even remember a great song about time:

If Time exists in personification as a thief, at least Time is putting the sweet things into its pocket! We should all dwell on the sweet memories of the past and not let Time steal those from us. Whether time exists as a thief or as a memory or not at all, we are in a New Year now, and we can use the time (or whatever it is) to improve ourselves for the benefit of others).

I cited Hunt’s poem because, just like in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Jenny (like George Bailey did numerous times) took an action which caused so much joy and/or a great impact for good to someone else. (Ironically, the poem was supposedly inspired when Leigh Hunt had recovered from the flu during a flu epidemic, and he was pleased when his friend’s wife greeted him with a kiss. I think we are taking stricter precautions during the current pandemic).

Perhaps avoid jumping up with a kiss during the uncertain times of COVID, but there are many other ways we can to bring joy to others, thus encouraging them. As writers, we can even use our words to encourage others. That’s what this column is all about, and I hope it’s working. I love you all, encourage you to keep writing and living your best life, and wish you the Happiest New Year ever!