“I want to save someone, just as I was saved.”
– Masami Iwasawa, Angel Beats
Episode 3, “My Song”

Masami died as a teenager, yet, in the limbo she finds herself in, she considers herself as having been saved while she was alive.

She came from a bad home. Drunken, abusive father beating on his wife, that sort of thing. Her life was filled with pain, and she suffered beneath it. Then she found a song. She learned that the artist behind it also came from a bad home situation, but it was the song, the music, which spoke to her. It gave something to her soul, and lit a spark of living, instead of just existing, within her. It inspired her to learn how to sing and play an instrument, to become a musician herself. She was only barely beginning, and there was no way to tell if she would ever go anywhere, but she devoted her life to it. She was… happy. More than she ever before, she was happy.

Until that horrible night when she got between her father and her mother, and he hit her so hard that her skull and brain were terribly damaged, and she soon died in the hospital from resulting complications. Her life ended before she could do the one thing she wanted to do.

She wanted to save someone, just as she had been saved.

It is the failure to do that, to save someone, which keeps her in limbo for awhile, until she is able to gain that feeling.

That quote speaks especially to me. I can’t claim to have had a particularly hard life. Yet, even with such a life as mine, I have needed saving. And I have been saved, by loved ones, family, good friends, the adorable critters in my life. I have also been saved by the stories I have consumed. The lessons they teach, the feeling they gave me, these have helped to save me, and teach me. That is one of the major reasons I have long aspired to be a storyteller myself. While I can’t claim any success, at all, I still want to pass on the light that was passed to me.

I want to give what I was given, share what was shared with me, and help as I was helped.

That is one reason I persist with this humble blog of mine, and why I have shared some quote, with some sort of lesson in it, every single Sunday, without fail. I may not have gone anywhere as a storyteller, but I can still share some of what I have learned from the multitude of stories I have absorbed.

It is a wonderful feeling to know that even one person out there may have gained something from all my effort. Even if it’s just a momentary smile, even if I never meet you, I am glad to share what I have with you, my wonderful audience. 🙂

On that note, I wish you all a most happy and wonderful day! 😀