In the slide deck that describes what Jedemi is all about, there is a reference to a couple of Frank Capra films. In this post, you’ll get a feel for how “You Can’t Take It with You” fits in.
The “Grandpa” referred to is Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff. In this scene, he is encouraging bank employee, Mr. Poppins, to “be a lily too.”
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In essence, Grandpa issued a call to Mr. Poppins to come over and follow his bliss.
In his autobiography, “The Name Above The Title,” Frank Capra described the Vanderhoff family as a “heterogeneous group of ‘happies’ who found the courage to do what most Americans secretly wished they could do: Consign to oblivion the hammer blows of crisis headlines– depression, wars, Hitler, Stalin– and more important, to escape from the modern rat race which pressured the average American into a lifetime of accumulating wealth and living standards he could never take with him.”
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It’s an awesome film (from 1938– Best Picture) with a message that rings true today. And it was based on a Pulitzer Prize winning play of the same name by Kaufman and Hart.
More on the courage aspect in another post.
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