I found this image of a Bonsai tree by Timothy K Hamilton to be very inspiring. I feel that the image displays a lot of power coming from a very small object. As individuals we can often feel alone, like a small and perhaps insignificant part of the world. However, as individuals we can hold a lot of power in ourselves, and also in numbers. As individuals we have things that we love, this love for various items brings us together and creates a common bond. When we all come together the power of many is stronger than the power of one, we uplift and support each other just as the base of the tree supports everything above it.
I believe tree represents the fan community as a whole, with the single base representing a love for a common theme, in our case that would be Sailor Moon. The first stronger branches are various forms of how we show love as a fan, one of which being collecting. From this branch we progress to smaller branches or “twigs”, these are collections that are more focused, more concise. Finally we reach the leaves of the tree, the individuals who host these collections, there are many of them. They may seem like a small, insignificant part by themselves, but they are part of a much larger group of belonging. The leaves are what bring the most life to the tree, they bask in the warmth of the sun, and they collect the light and contribute to the tree as a whole. After all, what is a fandom without its fans?
