A Thousand Cranes for Peace

Each year the local organization SAHELI has a fundraiser, calling for 1000 cranes for peace. Every origami folded paper crane (at $10 a piece) bears the name of the donor. Shanti Foundation’s cranes were among them. Having 1000 or more origami cranes calls for creativity in exhibiting them. This year they were bunched together in a few white and purple balls, that can be seen on the upper floor of the Austin Children’s Museum.

At first I was a bit disappointed. It takes about ten folds to create each crane, but in the ball they are no longer recognizable. The longer I think about it, though, there is a strong symbolism in these balls. While there are many small and large peace efforts going on in the world at this time, we are not aware of most of them, unless we are personally involved. When they come together, they may not stand out individually, but together they shine like a bright light. The “crane balls” make a strong impression, not as cranes, but as a unique composition of peace art. Individual cranes cannot move in all directions, bu tare held together at the center. Similarly, all our peace efforts become more powerful when we join around a common center.

SAHELI offers help to victims of domestic violence and abuse within the South Asian community (www.saheli-austin.org).

Fourth of July

Creating a website used to be a formidable task. Nowadays many scripts and organizations help even a rank beginner to create a site. But one must be willing to learn and follow their instructions (i.e.learn to think in computer-speak). Living interculturally is not very different. You have to learn a bit of the other person’s way of thinking, even if it is initially rather alien to you. They may dress differently, use words that are not in your vocablulary, and may come from a fmily background vastly different from your own. They may have grown up with behavior patterns that you would not even dream of.

The Fourth of July holiday is an excellent day for all immigrants to think how they have been forged into a nation. It has always taken a generation or two for newcomers to be fully integrated. Old traditions and prejudices had to die before the excitement of being in a new world could take hold. Hardships of first generation immigrants lingered sometimes into the second generation and created new prejudices. Those, whose families had come more than two generations before, sometimes resented the newcomers, especially the more successful ones or the ones who looked and acted vastly different from them. This is still playing out in other countries, where immigration by racially different people is a novelty. But the world is shrinking, at least mentally. We are more aware of other cultures, can inform ourselves  on the internet, eat ethnically diverse food and may have an immigrant neighbor or colleague. The earth’s resources are finite and must be shared. We no longer have the luxury of being blind to the “other.”