No rest for the good

"What if there isn't going to be a tomorrow? There wasn't today." So says Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day." Murray is Phil Connors, a snobbish weatherman who travels annually to Punxsutawney, a tiny hamlet in western Pennsylvania, to report on Groundhog Day. But this year is different. Grounded because of a husky blizzard, he awakes the next day only to experience this classic folksy town's Groundhog Day festivities again and again and again ...\nPhil becomes unbearably frustrated, to hilarious effect. His pessimism is not superficial, which conceals a deeply moral idealist; Phil is a genuine cynic. But he soon gravitates to the view that this unprecedented event is actually a blessing in disguise -- an opportunity to build up his character. This, as they say, is where the plot thickens. \nPhil discovers that the day-to-day clamor he is so used to -- and fed up with -- obscures a greater significance to middle-American life. He finds that time is short, and he must crowd every moment with the best that is in him. He draws up an impressive working list. He starts by caring for an elderly homeless man, catching a boy falling from a tree, applying the Heimlich maneuver to a rather hefty fellow, and the list goes on. And remember, he runs these tedious errands every day. \nTalk about troubles coming not in single spies but in battalions! Though Phil's clockwork interventions are humorous, the real moral is the exertion behind his benign efforts. Phil's study of romantic poetry notwithstanding, the point is not to be able to rehearse Shakespeare. Instead, to paraphrase Christopher Hitchens, it is to be Shakespearean. And on this score, Phil succeeds handsomely.\nThe value of this flick is two-fold: first, it gives lie to the popular claim that American suburbia is either boring or superficial. "Groundhog Day" teaches that everyday Americans live meaningful and upright lives, who know what qualities go to make up true happiness.\nThis leads to the second, more basic lesson of the film. It is, quite simply, to be good. Ah, same old, same old, you might say. And you'd be more right than you know, because part of being a good person has always been to produce as well as to consume. It is incumbent for those invested in the idea that life is about getting a nice car or a happy retirement -- though these things are nice -- to realize, as Phil does, that life is about a cause greater than self-interest. \nAt the end of "Groundhog Day," today becomes tomorrow. But not before Phil has learned the meaning of the axiom: "No rest for the good." This is something we could all be reminded of at a time when few envision grand errands for ourselves as connected to some deeper historical mission. The choice for right action will ultimately come to each of us. But that option, like the future, is not something to be awaited -- it must be met. \nSo happy Groundhog Day to all, but the ones who most deserve tribute are those toilers who succeed in making the most of themselves every day.