The Universal Language of Magic

For some reason I started thinking about old TV shows and how good I used to think they were. Maybe it’s because I’m feeling nostalgic or maybe it’s because my Cousin came by and we were talking about the movies we grew up watching. He loaned us Superman and Superman II, so we were talking about those and movie ratings and how that’s changed and so on.

And I thought of Bewitched.

I’m not sure why.

But I thought of it, and just like every other time in my life, it gave me comfort to think back to that show. I wanted to be Samantha, sure–but when Tabitha was born, I wanted to be her with almost every fiber of my being. She was adorable and had magical powers and well, yeah, isn’t that enough of a reason to want to be her? Oh and Aunt Clara. Of course.

When we lived in Japan, we had channels that we could watch American programming on. We could watch channels like Lifetime with about a two-week delay. (This really made me happy as I was watching Christmas movies well into January–AS ONE SHOULD. Obviously.) We also got Japanese channels. We really liked watching sumo matches and enjoyed the ceremony and regality of it all. We even had our favorite wrestlers. I haven’t watched a match since we moved back, but those are happy memories.

Somehow while we were there, I heard about the release of “Bewitched in Tokyo.” I don’t remember if I read about it in an English paper or saw a preview on a Japanese channel. Either way, I set the VCR (yes, VCR!) and recorded the first episode.

Adorable. A brilliant adaptation of a classic.

Sorry, was that too much?

Still, it was really fun. Two adorable Japanese young people, living in a high-rise apartment in Tokyo.

But everything else was the same.

So much so that they used the same story lines. For each and every episode I got to watch.

The only difference was I couldn’t understand a word they were saying.

And yet I knew exactly what was going on.

The beauty of knowing a story well and enjoying something despite the differences.

I recently saw an interview with a woman about polygamy. She was no less than vehement when she said, “It’s wrong. I hate them.”

Hate? Really? THEM?

I mean, you might disagree with how they are living and what their choices are, and you are allowed that. But HATE them?

Oh me.

Tonight I’m thankful for the memory of “Bewitched in Tokyo.” In a country where things were so very different and life was not at all familiar, I found that we are more alike than different. That someone in Japan loved the story of “Bewitched” enough to share it with their fellow Japanese friends and family and strangers alike–that is beautiful to me.

And that I could understand it, even though I spoke “skoshe” amount of Japanese–well some things are universal, aren’t they? They need no interpretation.

As we go through this weekend of remembering and aiming for peace in the world, may we all take a moment to remember, that despite all of our differences–

we all like to laugh at made up stories about magic. Among so many other things.

Wishing you peace and love for all.