The classic movie “The Shop Around the Corner” is a fitting movie for me this year’s holiday season for several reasons. It’s soaked with romance, humor, business and dark elements like job loss, rejection, adultery and suicide.
The Near-Fatal Misunderstanding
Alfred Kralik is an intelligent sales man who’s responsible for the floor room of a shop. During a series of disagreements with his boss (store owner Mr. Matuschek) there is a misunderstanding that ultimately results in Alfred getting fired.
Shortly thereafter, a crushed Mr. Matuschek – crushed for letting go an employee that he thought of as a son – closed shop and took a private meeting with a private detective who informs him that his wife had secret rendezvous with a different employee. He reflected on how loyal he had been to his wife for 22 years of marriage.
In a state of despair, he proceeds to his office to shoot himself but is unexpectedly interrupted by the shop errand boy.
The irony in this is that Mr. Matuschek exercised one of the greatest acts of dispassion and dereliction and faithlessness by firing his faithful employee, Alfred, because he believes that Alfred is engaging in an act of his faithless wife. In one night he enacted a level of unfaithfulness to someone he loved in a way similar to that which his wife was towards him.
Unabashed Rejection
Or as my daughter says, “You get what you get.”
The movie takes many humorous and dramatic turns. But another touching moment that ties it all together is when Mr. Matuschek returns to his store on Christmas Eve and mentions that the store really is his home because of all the time he spent there. It’s apparent that a misjudgment in priority put him out of touch with his wife’s needs. Heading home alone, he tries to drop hints to his employees as they leave that he’s in want and need of company.
Though there is much more to say regarding how this is almost as close to reflection from a movie that I can have this year, it’s not completely similar. But the lessons of priority in family, professional respect and keeping perspective are true.
If all the world’s a stage, then it’s my stage that I’m living on, and I get to choose my character.
Paurian
Whatever way my life goes … around the corner … with my work, with my family, with my happiness, with my wife, and with my faith … it’s paramount to abstain from the negative assumptions that wreck our lives and personal values.
There are those out there who will betray my trust and even outright lie and deceive me. But those are their actions, not mine. If all the world’s a stage, then it’s my stage that I’m living on, and I get to choose my character. Confident and secure in my integrity, loyalty and honesty.