The Power of the Pen

There are few things as powerful as a hand written note, especially in these times of e-mail. I have been the recipient of a number of these lately, often on beautiful, sometimes handcrafted, notecards.

CraftyLyra was one of those people who sent me a beautiful handcrafted card along with a box full of silver cranes. The cranes were from her wedding. The cranes were folded in part by her wedding guests. Like the cranes folded by the sixth graders, there are some that show the struggles of the folder, but the persistence as well. CraftyLyra had 1000 cranes from her wedding. Many were given away to friends along the way. But she still had about 200 left. She wanted to know if I might be able to use them in this project. At first I was not sure if it was going to be possible. But the spirit with which they were being offered provided all the motivation I needed to challenge myself, and figure out a way to make it happen. It turns out the cranes were very close to the size of the waxed paper cranes. I decided I would use them with the waxed paper cranes. Incorporating one silver crane at at a time onto a strand of waxed paper cranes, at a random spot on each strand. They will be a small bit of sparkle amid the cranes.

Here is part of CraftyLyra's note to me;

"Thank you so much for accepting these cranes. They were made with love and I've cherished them for the last four years. I hope that you will find a place for them in your important work. Thank you for giving them such a meaningful new home!"

It is the love and intention with which these cranes were made that made me want to figure out a way to make it work. And the silver was reasonably easy to fit into the project. So thank you, CraftyLyra!!

Another hand-crafted note came from Jessica inside a large manila envelope, crammed with waxed paper cranes. I had no idea Jessica was out there folding cranes for the project until this envelope showed up in my mailbox. Jessica wrote,

"I taught myself how to fold cranes a few years back after boring nights at work and have been folding ever since, often times with no "purpose" in mind. When I cam across your project, I knew I could help and put my folding to use. Enclosed, please find the first batch with more to follow."

Don't you just want to give Jessica a big old hug! I know I do! Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Jessica. And the card both of you lovely ladies sent are wonderful.

Another note came from a new folder who had sent me several e-mails. As she was preparing to send me a picture of a crane memorial project done by a group of peace activists, she heard me on the radio. It was a call in program on NPR, about the lack of images of the war. As I talked about my own reaction to this war being so invisible, Pat heard me on the radio. She wrote,

"As I write this I hear your voice on "On Point" only a minute ago."..."I feel connected to the passion in your voice and to you. I don't know if you think in religious terms but I can't help but think that the Spirit is moving in these 'coincidences'."

I do believe in the synchronicity of events. That sometimes when we begin to work towards a goal, people and resources will appear for us as we need them. We just need to be ready to see them and accept them. Pat lives not far away from me, so we plan to meet and talk about the many resources she has in her network. I am looking forward to that meeting, and the fact that this generous woman has entered my life at this time.

This wonderful spirit and generosity shown by these three women is being exhibited by many others who are busily folding cranes for this project. That energy will be an integral part of this project, and it will be richer for it. The simple act of folding a crane puts a person's intention and energy into the crane. That is why I want many people to participate, folding even one crane as a recognition of a life lost. Adding their own voice and concern through that act.

Serving Witness

This project has taught me far more than I expected to learn. In the last few days, I have realized how much I have become a better witness to the war and it's unfolding than I had been before I began, and I have also been able to witness the wonderful efforts and generosity of people I know, and absolute strangers, as they join in to help make this project a reality.

Before I began this project, I thought I was reasonably well informed about the unfolding of this war. I am a regular listener,...make that an obsessive listener, to NPR. I listen not only to the NPR newscasts and talk shows, but also to the BBC reporting which often gives a different perspective. Yet, until I immersed myself in this project, I could not see how much was happening completely out of sight of the average, well-informed American.

I would see different things happen in the trends and I would listen attentively to the news reports to hear how it was interpreted. But often, it was not interpreted. It just was not there. About a month ago, we had the first full week of the war with no fatalities among the American soldiers. Did you know that? Most likely not. I can't describe how I felt to see day after day that the number of fatalities was not increasing. We went about 8 or 9 days straight. But, about the point that I was ready to cheer this event, I went a bit deeper, and read about the soldier, back for a year or more from Iraq, who had just committed suicide. And the attacks that were happening on Iraqi citizens, with hundreds dying. It was as if someone popped a balloon, to experience how quickly my mood deflated.

Since I began this project, the number of deaths of American soldiers has increased by a little more than 200. But, during that same time period, the number of Iraqi citizens that have been killed has increased by about 5000. More than the total number of American soldiers that have died in this entire war. In about six-and-a-half months. We are not hearing or seeing that news though.

I have begun to collect magazine articles about the war to fold into cranes to represent the nearly 200 journalists who have lost their lives in Iraq. It is striking to me, as I went through a stack of 12 weeks worth of a weekly news magazine from the spring of this year, how many of them did not include any articles AT ALL, of the war. Nothing. Nada. This included the anniversary of the war, and passing the 4000 mark in the death toll of American soldiers. There was nothing about the increase in violence in April when the truce with the Mahdi army broke down. I saw it in the numbers, but not in the reporting.

I have made another video looking at the numbers for 2004. I had just finished the cranes for that year, and I saw what an impact the collection of cranes had on those who saw them all together. The video is just not as powerful as seeing them in person, but I think it is thought provoking.




On a more positive note, I am being struck by the support for the project that is coming to me in the form of cranes and notes. You may have noticed how quickly the total number of waxed paper cranes is climbing these days. The last few weeks have brought me several hundred cranes per week in the mail. Crane folding get-together's have resulted in quite a few cranes being folded, and bringing some wonderful new people into my life.

Most people are sending fifty, or one hundred, or two hundred cranes at a time. It is truly wonderful, and incredibly helpful. I am waiting for the day though, where there are many envelopes in the mailbox with one crane, or three cranes, in addition to those boxes or large envelopes stuffed full of cranes. Envelopes with cranes folded not with ease, but with the struggle of learning how to manipulate the paper into this elegant form will be welcomed with just as much gratitude, because they will come from a true dedication and desire to help, in spite of the challenges of folding a crane for those new to origami.

In my next post, I will share some of the notes I have received. They are too wonderful to keep to myself. In the meantime, you can check out a lens I have created about The Crane Project on Squidoo. I am learning about Squidoo right now. I would describe it as the intersection of social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace or Twitter, visual sites like YouTube and Flickr, information sites like Wikipedia, and e-commerce sites like Amazon or eBay. It was the brainchild of internet marketing guru Seth Godin. WARNING: Highly addictive!! But it seems to be another good way to spread the word about the project.

Why Is Peace So Radical?

I just began reading a book by Colman McCarthy called I'd Rather Teach Peace. Mr. McCarthy was a journalist who was asked to teach writing at a school in the Washington, D.C. area where he worked. His response was, as the title says, "I'd rather teach peace." Which, he did. The book chronicles his experiences teaching peace in many different classroom environments, and the reactions of his students to the class.

It is a fascinating book. I have not gotten too far in it yet, but it already has me thinking about how much we are geared towards confrontation and aggression. We study wars in school for years, and touch upon just a few peacemakers. We call our soldiers brave, and our conscientious objectors cowards. The Iraq war arose out of a refusal to talk to our enemies, rather than attempt to understand them.

Peace was presented as an irrational alternative by our leaders, and their supporters. But, where was the rationality in invading a country, and removing their dictator, their army and police forces, with the hopes that democracy would emerge? Is it, or was it radical to suppose that chaos would emerge instead?

How much more courage does it take to sit down with your enemy and have a conversation? To talk rather than point a weapon or drop a bomb? How much courage does it take for a leader to send in troops to fight a war? Especially when those leaders have never witnessed the horrors of war?

Michael Kamber of The New York Times recently wrote about the scarcity of images of this war, especially of wounded or dead American soldiers. We don't even see the caskets coming back from Iraq. Photographs have been banned. Anyone around during the time of the Vietnam war will remember those images from that war. Caskets, draped with flags, lined up. Is this ban done out of fear of the reaction of the public? Do our leaders lack the courage of the conviction of their choices to the degree that they cannot show us the cost of this war?

Too many people do not know or see what is going on with this war. Will it be easier to go to war again if we don't witness the effects of war? We cannot recreate the pictures of the past. But, as an artist, I hope this project can help people see at least the numbers, and let their imaginations fill in the picture of what those numbers represent in lives cut short. I am listening to Vincent Bugliosi's book, The Prosecution of George Bush for Murder. It was recommended by a friend. As I listened this morning, he was outlining the stories of a few Americans killed in Iraq, and the effect the loss has had on their families. To say it is heart wrenching is an understatement. The saddest thing is that most of this pain is borne by a few in obscurity. Even more obscure is the pain of Iraqi civilians losing their children, their parents, their friends.

Real people get killed in wars. Not robots. Not evil characters as depicted in movies. Real people. If recognizing that is radical, I guess that makes me extremely radical. I will learn to live with that. If wanting to know what the effects of war are is radical, I will own that as well. And I will believe I am not alone.

Landmarks

Two markers of sorts have been passed. Over the weekend I finished up 2004, and started on 2005 with the polymer clay cranes. Having all the cranes from one year has spurred on a few projects on the side....a few new videos in the works!

Over the weekend we had a crane folding party. We managed to fold 297 cranes in a few hours time, and many people left with waxed paper in hand. Another hundred cranes arrived from Arlene, and I picked up 400 (!) more cranes at the post office today from Mary in Oregon. With all that folding, we now have crossed the 3000 mark with the waxed paper cranes. yeahhhh!!!

I took these pictures in my basement. I hung some white paper to help provide a better background than the dark paneling that is down there right now. I love the shadows. And the waxed paper cranes look better than I could have imagined. This is only about 8 strands hanging. Imagine when it is installed somewhere, with many, many, more strands. These little glimpses convince me this is such an essential project. They give me an idea of the power of what will be when it is finished and installed somewhere.

I made a little video to show the transistion from clay to cranes on strands. It is just over a minute long...I am learning how to be a better editor. :-) Hope you like it!

Inspiration

Inspiration can be a hard thing to pin down. We may think we know someone's source of inspiration, but sometimes it is a series of things that bring someone to a place where they have that light bulb moment. That flash. So it was with this project. Somewhere early in the path, was the story of a Marine named Bobby. I folded his crane about a week and half ago, and I knew pretty quickly that I wanted to share how he inspired this project in a video. Here it is. Hope it fills in the picture for you a bit more clearly.

Happy Surprises

Nearly everyone loves getting a package, especially when they contain surprises. I knew I would be receiving a package from Janice Abarbanel, but I had no idea just how many cranes would be inside.

Janice and I were roommates at the Synergy conference in Baltimore, and as a result, she probably heard way more information than she wanted to about the Crane Project! She told her neighbor, Debbie Saperstein about the project. Debbie is a sixth grade reading teacher in Norton, Massachusetts. When she heard about the project, something must have connected for her. Let me let her explain....the following was in the note sent along with the cranes:

"I told my students of your dream, and we decided to help. Each student on our 6/White 2007/2008 team who created a "crane" received a raffle ticket toward a pair of Red Sox tickets..... Students received raffle tickets when they demonstrated kindness towards others, the community, and to themselves. The "cranes" enclosed are a tribute to their dedication and yours.

Thank you for honoring us with the opportunity to help in this wonderful way."

For anyone who lives in New England, particular in the Boston area, you know, this is known as Red Sox nation. Tickets to the Red Sox games are not inexpensive, or easy to get. They usually sell out the games very early in the season. Having attended a few games myself, Fenway Park is a special place, and often is the beginning of a life-long love affair with the Red Sox that lasts even when you move away from the area. Clearly these kids were motivated. Nearly 400 cranes arrived in that box from Janice.

I can't express enough my appreciation to Janice, Debbie, and all the students from 6 White who folded those cranes. I love that people I have never met, or even knew about until the box arrived, were inspired enough to sit down, cut out squares of paper, and do their very best to fold them into cranes. It inspires me in ways that cannot be imagined. Thank you! I have put the cranes in bags to be strung into strands of 100 cranes. The efforts of all these kids has helped to count move up significantly, and the story of how and why the cranes came to be is wonderful.