A little over two weeks ago, I wore this pin to the Women’s March on New York.
It wasn’t just a fancier variation on the iconic safety pin, though it was also that.
When I went to the Women’s March, I was worried there might be trouble: police crackdowns, counter protesters, provocateurs…who knows? So I wore this pin for…luck isn’t the right word. Not nearly strong enough. This pin is the closest thing I’ve ever experienced to magic.
I bought this pin back in college when my then-girlfriend passed out for no reason we could discover while we were walking across one of the lawns. I gave it to her to watch over her in my stead while she was in the hospital being examined. Nothing was found, and she never had the problem again.
Some time later, we loaned the angel to a girl in our dorm whose brother back in Romania had been in a car accident, and all she could do was worry and weep. We gave her the angel and told her that it was good luck. A few days later, she gave it back, no longer worried and weeping. Her brother would be all right.
Some time after that, a girl from our dorm was raped at a frat party. We loaned her the pin, and…she slept a little better. She said it felt like we were watching over her and it kept some of the nightmares away. Sometimes even magic can only do so much.
There have been others. And it always seemed to work. So when I say that pin is magic, I mean that it’s a ward. It’s protection. And if this angel is a guardian angel, as it seems to be, then it seems to watch over women.
It worked again on the day of the March, though of course we were never in actual danger that I know of. There are logical explanations for all of the other good things that happened, too. I’m still going to wear this pin to every future protest I attend. May the angel protect the women around me; their enemy is in power.