"You Can't Take It With You"

After watching Mr. Smith Goes to Washington a while back, some friends recommended we watch another Frank Capra film entitled, "You Can't Take it With You". Well we needed some comic relief so we watched it the other evening. What a riot. While it didn't fit with any current topic of study, it did fit well with the general theme of life that we strive for. If you've not seen it, the movie is about a very eccentric family headed up by Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff.

Basically, Grandpa walked away from his very lucrative career because he wasn't having any fun in life. He then decided to do whatever he wanted to do and encouraged his family members to do the same. Their family definitely embodies the unschooling mentality.

While talking with a wealthy business man, Grandpa says, "Maybe it'll stop you trying to be so desperate about making more money than you can ever use? You can't take it with you, Mr. Kirby. So what good is it? As near as I can see, the only thing you can take with you is the love of your friends." This was the way that Grandpa lived his life. Oh that we could all be like that.....

One of my favorite parts of the film was when Grandpa said grace before the family sat down to dinner. He does it twice in the movie but unfortunately I could only find the text from the second time. Here is Grandpa talking to God:

(offering grace) "Quiet, please, quiet! Well, sir, here we are again. We've had quite a time of it lately, but it seems that the worst of it is over. Course, the fireworks all blew up, but we can't very well blame that on you. Anyway, everything's turned out fine, as it usually does. Alice is going to marry Tony; Mr. Kirby, who's turned out to be a very good egg, sold us back our house - he'll probably forget all about big deals for a while. Nobody on our block has to move; and, with the right handling, I think we can even thaw out Mrs. Kirby here. We've all got our health; as far as anything else is concerned, we still leave that up to you. Thank you."

I especially focused in on the part when he says, "as far as anything else is concerned, we still leave that up to you." I'm always amazed at the wisdom in some of these old movies. It's not too often that you find a current movie with characters who talk like that!

So, as we head into the weekend, if you are looking for a funny, light-hearted and inspirational movie to watch, check out "You Can't Take it With You". Although, maybe you've already seen it. I guess I assume that everyone else is as old-movie deprived as I am!

God Bless!