"It's a Wonderful Life" or "Clarence Meets the 达赖喇嘛"

I recently was able to help a friend and received in return a magnificent gift - a bell from the Dalai Lama (达赖喇嘛) when he visited New York.

This is the Bell from
the Dalai Lama (达赖喇嘛)

You see, "Clarence," my online alter ego, was the angel from It's a Wonderful Life. And you can't be unfamiliar with the line at the end in which it's explained that every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings.

A pair was granted today.

Sentimentality (which I criticized here➚) can sometimes be something quite different from the groan-inducing patina collected over years of thoughtless use; sometimes it's the substance of the thing, the matrix in which a collective understanding is fixed. It's hard to tell the difference sometimes, but we often apply the word "classic" to instances when most of us most of the time embrace the sentiment rather than groan over it.

Life is indeed wonderful when filled with small treasures like this.