kagi

kagi. what does kagi mean? well, this four-letter word in english has no meaning so far, but in a language used in a country at the far east, kagi means key. and guess what? this word is only two-letters in that language intimately called nihongo by its fluent speakers.

kagi entails more than just a word or two syllables that form a word, though. kagi is one that grants access to entrance to a whole new possibility, or a familiar locality offering, yes, a whole new possibility. kagi comes in many forms. there is the physical kagi; tools that have many different forms as well, and there is the non-physical kagi, which is shapeless and formless, unseen yet exists and recognizable.

the physical kagi takes shape in many different forms. most recognizable is the 'lock's key'. the lock's key consists of the bow, the grip part, and the long blade. the lock's key has many names and forms too. the most famous will always be the skeleton key, the simplest looking key of all. then there is also the 'card key'. this is by far the most modern physical kagi.

imagine being at the airport, due to a flight on an airplane. if you lost your ticket and your boarding pass, it would be very difficult to go on the flight. these two things are tool kagis and they grant you access. remember the terminal with tom hanks' character stranded at the airport? he lost his documents and was not granted permission to enter the country. yes, kagi can not only be in the form of a lock's key, it could also be those mundane things like paper or card.

the non-physical kagi may easily be things such as a sound, words, or phrases. remember in harry potter? there's that portrait of the fat lady that stands between hogwart's grand staircase and the gryffindor's common room and dormitory. and what was the kagi to enter the dorm? not a physical kagi like the ones we use to enter our own dorms, it is a password, a form of a non-physical kagi and most common in the digital age. email accounts, computer user accounts, banking savings accounts, they are all locked using passwords too, but these are character passwords, not sound passwords. kagis may not be just a form of vibrations in the air, they can be electronic signals too.

but kagis not only give access, they bar access as well. locking a door to certain rooms require a kagi too. kagis hinder unwanted access into domains. this means that kagis are working against their sole purpose as well. or maybe, kagis have dual purposes. they lock and unlock, and with them you are either locked in or locked out of the domain you wanted to enter or to exit.

note that kagis are not limited to that. there are a number of purposes for different forms of kagis. ever heard of the word 'keyword'? this has many meanings, but a keyword is usually the word that becomes the point of reference of certain information. users use keywords or keyphrases in search engines to search information that is related to these kagis. phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses; they are kagis that link. and then there is the human kagi, for example a friend, your parents, your relatives. having someone you know can help you gain access to mingle with a certain crowd you want to approach.

kagis are a curious thing. their existence may be insignificant at one time, and be most important the next. when you lost a kagi, you lose the path to a space in existence. sometimes we overlook these kagis, but they are, like everything else in this world, has a purpose nonetheless.