Doctor Who and the Weeping Angel

 

On our daily path away from the city square, my dog stopped and looked intensely, as he does when deer or coyote are on the path. After a few seconds he decided to check this “intruder” out and we got closer.

To my surprise, someone had decided to design an upcoming Halloween scene in this secluded area where mostly dog walkers use.  A weeping angel surrounded by raven (or crows) was next to gravestones.  Even my dog was confused as he looked at me wondering if he should chase the raven away or be touched by the sorrow of the angel…

Of course, my mind flew to the Protestant Cemetery in Rome where the original Weeping Angel was carved by William Wetmore Story and placed upon the tomb of his wife Emelyn in 1894. Since then, variants of a crying or weeping angel can be found in every cemetery of our planet. Those of us who have seen these weeping angle statues in various countries’ cemeteries I believe have a favorite or at least a favorite posture of the angel. While most are shown covering their faces, there are those that have their wings unfolded and their faces fully exposed. That posture is my favorite as it shows the extent of the sorrow and pain. The most remarkable may be the Haserot Weeping Angel in Cleveland, OH as her fully visible face is covered with what seems to black tears while sitting on a marble gravestone.

Then my mind meandered back to the 1960s when I first watched the British Series “Doctor Who”! And I almost thought that I saw his time travel ship, the TARDIS, fly over the city square… Hmm. Well, the Doctor was this extraterrestrial with a human appearance and he did good deeds around the world. For the youngsters who could not always separate fact from fiction, this BBC production made us think about the surreal but with implications for our behavior in the real world. And it was in this series that Weeping Angels were introduced as the moist malevolent life-forms evolution has ever produced. Indeed, these angels were angels of death, of grief and of sorrow. They covered their faces because if they looked at each other’s eyes they will be petrified for eternity. In other word, they will become statues.

… It was before my morning coffee but my dog wanted to walk another 2 miles but I had already walked back 60 years through the serpentine paths of memory.

On the way home, I was still wondering why whoever put that Halloween set-up put it there. Was the angel weeping in grief the hundreds of thousand deaths from Covid-19? Was she in sadness remembering the “easy” days of the past when people hugged, kissed and held each other when they met for dinner on a warm summer evening?

If Doctor Who flies over the city in his TARDIS, I will make sure to get his attention and ask these questions!

 

October 11, 2020

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2020