johndiii's Journal: Thought for the Day: Giving

After going for sushi this evening with my daughter, as a belated birthday celebration (she works most evenings), I went to Starbucks for a little caffeine to offset the sake. :-) And to write in my journal, which seems to work best when I am out of the apartment. I'm not sure exactly why that is; perhaps I just have less on my mind when I am not at home.

Anyway, shortly before I left a family came in. Mother, father, seven or eight year old girl, five or six year old boy, and a baby in a carrier. I did not pay much attention to them as they ordered their drinks and settled in. I finished up what I wanted to write (but unfortunately not the poem that has been gestating in my head), and was leaving when the father stopped me. The boy had been coloring, and wanted to give me the picture. I accepted, knowing the effort that he had put into it, and in return gave him the origami crane that I had folded when I sat down. He was clearly pleased with it, though it did not take the effort that his picture had consumed. I thanked him, and went on my way.

I was touched by his gift. I have done a lot of thinking lately about gifts. What I am given, in various ways, and what I give others. All in all, it was a wonderful way to close out my day.

Thank you, Frankie.

Sometimes...

[Shadow Wrought]

Receiving is hard than the giving. My wife is LDS (though inactive), and one of their definitions of Charity is giving and receiving help.

On a side note, when I have made origami cranes they have looked horribly disfigured. As if the paper was dipped in toxic waste before folding.

Re:

[johndiii]

Good point about receiving. It is important to receive gifts with grace.

Cranes get easier with practice. :-) After you have folded a few hundred of them, particularly. :-D I can fold an acceptable crane with my eyes closed, though it is a somewhat different exercise than doing it with one's eyes open. There was an article in Wired, IIRC, a couple of months back, in which it was suggested to shower blindfolded. I have not tried it, but I know someone who did, and said that it was a very interesting expe

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[Shadow Wrought]

While I have not showered blindfolded, I did manage to miss my head with the shampoo once and smack myself square in the eyes. Does doing half a shower mostly blinded and hurting count? You know you're in for a groggy day when you're too tired to shower! ;-)

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[WillAffleckUW]

Cranes get easier with practice

A friend of mine wrote a book on them, actually. I remember learning them back in the day from that Peter guy who did folding airplanes.

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[SolemnDragon]

this is going to sound dumb... but as someone who has written quite a number of things on cranes... do you mean literally?

or do you mean 'about,' and can you email or post the title, since now i'm fascinated?

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[WillAffleckUW]

No, I mean literally. Can't remember the title of his Origami book, but Ray's a good guy. Now what's his last name ... dang, I just call him Ray, haven't used his last name in decades. We both do film festivals, and I ran into him promoing his book at one of the local Book Festivals in Seattle, which is how I know he did it (I don't buy books on origami). It looked nice.

He used to be married to another writer friend of mine - in fact, when I lived in Vancouver BC I stayed at their place when I came down h