| Who Is Raphaela? |
Raphaela is a name that was given to me by Lawrence. It came to me when he watched Wim Wenders' "Faraway, So Close!" and was struck by a secondary character in the film, the angel Raphaela. She spends the greater part of the film following around the main character, Cassiel, keeping watch over him and listening to him as he spoke to her. The curious thing is, he spoke to her, trusting she could hear him even though he could not see her nor hear her replies. At the time, Lawrence and I lived a great distance apart and we communicated by post. In one of his letters, he wrote to me, "You know, the characters of Cassiel and Raphaela remind me of us. It's because of the way they talk to each other. It's also because of how Cassiel observes things and reports what he observes to an invisible Raphaela, who is 'far away, yet so close.' You see, Cassiel and Raphaela are both angels, but when Cassiel becomes human, he can no longer physically sense Raphaela. Nonetheless, he speaks to her, his invisible friend who watches over him." With this, he concluded, "You are very much my Raphaela . . . ."
As for the rest of me: