Each time I sit down to eat at a Sushi Restaurant, I use the paper that the chopsticks come in, to fold a tiny origami peace crane. Every time. It’s a habit I’ve had for about three years and probably will have for the rest of my life.
But why?
Two reasons. It goes back to a time in my life when my friends and I worked to promote the One and MPH campaigns during U2’s Vertigo Tour in 2006 -2007.
We came up with the idea of holding up signs during the U2 concert to show the band (and other fans) that we supported Bono’s One Campaign work and his speeches about Africa and helping out. We did this at many shows (we recruited new fans to organize the handing out of signs before shows in their own cities) and it was always signs; sometimes on paper, sometimes on fabric strips, sometimes even plastic provided by the MPH Office in Canada. Except when the band toured Japan. My friend Tina, had visited the Peace museum (I cant remember which city – there are a few spread around various continents) and came back to write about it. The experiene had made an indelible impression upon her and as she shared it with us via the U2 fanclub, another friend came up with the idea of using the symbol of a peace crane to promote the Japanese version of the One Campaign at the U2 show in Japan. We loved the idea and so found youtube videos on how to fold an origami crane and so began my folding.
The original story of the Peace crane is that one of Hiroshima’s child victims began folding cranes as therapy for her hands/fingers, but as she folded crane after crane, she learned concentration, patience and also learned to forgive those who dropped the bomb. She folded 1000 cranes and was able to forgive. Hence it being called a Peace Crane.
We folded. And folded, and most of us kept track of how many – the average was about 700 per person. We sent them to a friend in Japan for collection until the day of the U2 concert at which time they were handed out to fans lined up waiting to get into the show via general admission, as well as info on how to sign up for the Japanese One Campaign. When the band began their segment on making poverty history in Africa (Where the Streets Have No Name, Pride, etc) and then started to sing One – thousands of people took the white cranes out of pockets and purses and held them up for the band to see, for other fans to see. Someone tossed a white crane on the ramp where Bono was walking, and he stopped, looked at it, bent down and picked it up. Almost all the cranes folded had the Japanese One website address written on them, and so he read what was on the crane, and then held it aloft to finish out the song. It was just one of many U2 special moments that we experienced throughout this particular tour of the band.
When I began this blog, I said there were two reasons I fold cranes. The other reason is Noreen/Painted Dancer. I met her on U2 fanclub forum and she was an incredible person; kind, generous, funny. Noreen had been fighting a rare form of cancer for many years. She had tumors that would come back each time they were removed, and it affected her eyesight, her breathing and her quality of life but she never complained of the numerous surgeries she endured to remove the tumors, or of the pain she was in most of the time. She lived life to the fullest, and treated people with love and respect. Noreen taught me a lot about acceptance and about myself in the short time I knew her. When I ‘met’ her, she was on a U2 quest – to see as many shows as she could in a year of the band touring – I think she knew that her time was limited and it was her desire to fill her remaining days with as much as she could, both with seeing the band, but also with meeting as many of us as she could, in person. She had the good fortune to meet Bono and a few other band members as well, and when it came to folding cranes, she was able to fold a few before she fell ill – the tumors had come back, but this time they also found a spot on her liver and in her lungs. We all folded a special crane for Noreen and sent them to her so she could feel part of what we were doing. I sent her an orange crane – I made two cranes from the same piece of scrapbook paper – I still have one of them on my desk.
Noreen passed away before the end of the tour. I lost a person who might have become a very good friend, a person who already was a friend. And so, when I go eat sushi… I fold a crane. Every time. And it reminds me of Noreen. And U2 and Africa. And what Noreen believed and what Bono believes and what we all worked so hard to accomplish three years ago; what some of us are still working to accomplish today.
