This week has been nuts. And apparently it's only Monday afternoon. Oh well. This is life eternal.
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Today my roommate and I were walking through an exhibit in BYU's fine arts center. The exhibit is up in preparation for BYU's production of the play A Thousand Cranes, which is the story of a young Japanese girl who had leukemia as a result of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. She believed that if she folded 1,000 origami paper cranes, her illness would be cured and she would be able to live. She folded and folded and folded, but passed away after m
any months of suffering from cancer.
The exhibit consists of a massive display of folded paper cranes, tied in long rows with string. I remember my mom folding and stringing colorful paper cranes when I was little. The strands of folded birds are beautiful, created from a variety of types of paper. The end result is beautiful.
The gallery surrounding the exhibit is composed of photographs and drawings of the aftermath of the bomb. The destruction is completely devastating. Crumbling buildings,charred fields, and maimed bodies are a testament to the horrors that destroyed cities within seconds.
My roommate and I were both astounded at the poignancy of the display. We both thought back to our high school days, and we realized that much of the history education from the WWII period focuses on Western Europe, almost completely passing over the events that occurred in the Pacific and other parts of the world.
What amazed me the most about the exhibit at the fine arts center was the contrast that was so easily visible. On the one hand, the dark gray of burned buildings in the photographs, the dismal dark reds of the images of injured flesh; on the other hand, bright paper cranes, in every color imaginable. Bright flashes of light--unstoppable blasts of atomic force--led to the creation of both scenes. How is it possible? And how is it possible to be able to recover from such destruction?
Today I will remember bright birds. I will remember them so I can remember what kind of hope is possible when everything else seems to be destroyed.
any months of suffering from cancer.The exhibit consists of a massive display of folded paper cranes, tied in long rows with string. I remember my mom folding and stringing colorful paper cranes when I was little. The strands of folded birds are beautiful, created from a variety of types of paper. The end result is beautiful.
The gallery surrounding the exhibit is composed of photographs and drawings of the aftermath of the bomb. The destruction is completely devastating. Crumbling buildings,charred fields, and maimed bodies are a testament to the horrors that destroyed cities within seconds.
My roommate and I were both astounded at the poignancy of the display. We both thought back to our high school days, and we realized that much of the history education from the WWII period focuses on Western Europe, almost completely passing over the events that occurred in the Pacific and other parts of the world.
What amazed me the most about the exhibit at the fine arts center was the contrast that was so easily visible. On the one hand, the dark gray of burned buildings in the photographs, the dismal dark reds of the images of injured flesh; on the other hand, bright paper cranes, in every color imaginable. Bright flashes of light--unstoppable blasts of atomic force--led to the creation of both scenes. How is it possible? And how is it possible to be able to recover from such destruction?
Today I will remember bright birds. I will remember them so I can remember what kind of hope is possible when everything else seems to be destroyed.
2 comments:
i love that story! I had the picture book when I was little of that, and I loved it...it always made me cry...and I was like seven and didn't even know what cancer was. but this post brought back good memories :)
we learned to fold those birds for your Mom and Dad's wedding. Every once in a while when the kids won't sit still in sacrament meeting I fold one to distract them from playing around I never forgot how. You should learn and then you could hang your own display :)
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