Thursday 22 June 2006

Pic of the day: Even though he is the son of a god, Samatarou cannot fly without his angel. (Screenshot from the anime Kamisama Kazoku.)

Making angels

I see, today is the seven-year anniversary for the dream about losing a toe. I wonder if I understood it back then, I did not write anything about understanding it but it looks so obvious. I come to the place where Superwoman's family lives, but there is no mention of her, only of other family members. On arrival I lose my left big toe, it breaks off but I feel no pain and there is skin on both sides of the break, gradually thinner toward the middle, as if it had been preparing for weeks or months.

A break also came to pass, except it was prepared for years. Our big toes, especially the left, are fairly small body parts that we can live without. But if we do, we will never walk normally again, because they are more essential to walking than you would guess from their size and the number of other toes we also have. And so it came to pass that after a long time of growing apart, I now live without a best friend. For much of my adult life I have had a female best friend. Just friends, no indecency implied. After a friend like her, it is hard to imagine anyone measuring up. I don't begrudge her moving on... in fact, I encouraged it. But I will probably always limp a bit from here on, as if a small but important part of me is missing.

***

In the anime Kamisama Kazoku ("the God family"), the main character is Samatarou, son of the local God, who is admittedly is not up to our standards but can still perform miracles. Samatarou can not. He is living in the human world in order to learn to understand humans. Always by his side is Tenko, the girl who is his guardian angel in human form. He is used to her being there, and does not think about it much. Besides, she can be irritating sometimes when she keeps watch over him.

One day, blinded by love for a classmate, Samatarou decides to become human, to renounce his divine heritage. His father arranges for him to wake up the next day in an alternate reality where he and all his family members are human. Another change is that Tenko the angel, who was a created being, is not there at all. Samatarou discovers that life without her is not what he thought it would be, and forgets his supposed purpose for being there. Instead he starts searching for Tenko.

In a shop he meets a girl that looks and behaves vaguely like Tenko, but she seems to be a little older than him and looks a little different, her hair dark brown instead of red and she seems taller. She agrees to help him try to reach the bullet train. But the bullet train has already gone when they arrive. "As long as you are with me, we can do it" says Samatarou. "Because you are an angel!" And then he, who has never used divine powers before, changes her into the angel she was meant to be. Her hair changes, wings grow out of her back and a halo over her head. Now that his angel is with him, the motorbike can fly and easily catch up with a bullet train.

This time, let it be noted that I did realize. And this time it wasn't even my dream. Or rather, it wasn't only mine.