Towards the end of Spirited Away, protagonist Chihiro finds shelter with an unlikely friend. The witch Zeniba, twin sister of the evil Yubaba, offers her a meal and a place to rest. But Chihiro being Chihiro, she can’t sit still for long. At least not while Yubaba holds both her parents and her friend hostage.
“Haku could die while I’m sitting here!” But Chihiro doesn’t exactly have a plan, and the true challenge of this strange spirit world she finds herself in even Zeniba can’t help with: In order to escape, people must first recall their true name. Just as Chihiro’s impatience is about to get the best of her, Haku arrives in dragon-form, wounded but alive.
Before the two set off to free Chihiro’s parents, however, Zeniba does have one instrumental piece of advice: “Everything that happens stays inside you—even if you can’t remember it.”
That’s why, while flying through the cool summer air on Haku’s back, Chihiro decides to tell him a story. It’s a story about a girl falling into a river, losing her shoe, but then making it safely back ashore—a story Chihiro has lived but doesn’t remember—and it is thanks to her tale that Haku can finally recall his real name.
Spirited Away holds many wonderful lessons, but this one stuck with me the most: You can’t waste anything. Everything that happens has its place. The good. The bad. The feelings of powerlessness, and the necessary rest before a sprint. In the end, it all adds up to you—a unique, incomparable, inimitable you—and that is the point.
Just like our names, it is the totality of our lives that gives them meaning. So whether we are soaring through the sky or desperately trying to save our friends, it’s a good thing that…
“Everything that happens stays inside you—even if you can’t remember it.”