Occasionally I’m struck by the apparent oddness of people’s behavior. High on my list of pet peeves are people who go out of their way to destroy the works of other. Case in point: this story coming in from Mainichi, Japan. As many people know, the origami crane has become a symbol of world piece, thanks to the rather sad example of Sadako Sasaki: a young Japanese girl who believed that if she folded a thousand cranes, she would be cured of her leukemia, caused by the radiation of the Hiroshima bombing in 1945.

She died after folding 644. Her friends and classmates later completed her 1000 cranes, and built a statue to honor her and all children affected by the bombing. Now the origami crane has become a symbol of peace, and millions of cranes are offered at this monument each year.

All in all, I find it a pretty powerful symbol.

Back to our story. Some yutz decides he’s frustrated with having failed to graduate, and sets
fire to 140,000 of the paper cranes. The hopes and best wishes of thousands, reduced to ashes in seconds by just one person.

This should serve as reminder: in many situations, one person can make a difference, and not always a good one. It’s much easier to destroy than to build, and much easier to fight than to have peace.

As I think about it more, I know that the cranes are just a symbol, just paper. But each represents a person stopping in their concerns, and thinking about a small girl and how nations can brutalize children. In that sense, the
symbol has done its work, so perhaps nothing important has been lost afterall.

Okay, enough pontificating. If you’d like to learn how to fold a crane, try

here.