Here we are again, at the Spring Solstice, March 20th.
For those not in the know, FLCL provides very little information about much of the personal age of the characters featured in it. One omitted piece of information is Haruko's birthday. Now, in lieu of an official one, many people would chose to use the date that theirsource material first came out, or was dubbed in English, or use their own birthday. For me, though, it's different. Haruko's name in Japanese means 'Spring Child', so this day, March 20th, marking the first day of spring, seems the day most appropriate for me to celebrate her.
Her spring-affiliation holds a lot of meaning to me, /mai/. To me, Haruko is my Spring– my rebirth. Like the Spring comes and brings warmth to the world after Winter has frozen it over, so too does she bring warmth to me and revitalize me, even when I have sunken into the cold abyss. Like the Spring sun melts away the frost from the ground and casts out the clouds and overcast of the winter sky, Haruko enters into my heart and destroys the coldness of self-doubt and loathing. In front of her brilliant light and warmth, there isn't a single sheet of ice inside me that doesn't melt and crack when I think of her. Even the dark cold of loneliness and longing for her touch can barely stand it. She is my sun and stars; the springtime breeze on my face and the blossoming of cherry blossoms and every other wonderful thing about the season. Today I stepped out and just stared up into the sky and took in a face-full of breeze and sunshine for a couple minutes as I thought of her, and how happy I was to celebrate her birthday today.
Today I'll be taking her out to see a movie, start up some spring cleaning, maybe take a couple pictures (if I do, I'll post them later), I'll even set up a nice little dinner for us. But as I said before– Haruko is my revitalizing force. I'm making a commitment to her for my birthday to self-improve for her, because even though her love for me is as unconditional as mine for her, I know that she loves to see me grow as do the spring flowers sprouting up from the ground. For her, I want to bloom as proudly and brightly as I can, and that's my promise to her.
I love you, Haruko. Happy Birthday.
