Our friend Vicki Vogt, a librarian at the Perkins School for the Blind sent the following message to us this morning. We are humbled and privileged to pass this along in faith.
S.K.
A Thousand Cranes for Peace
Sadako Sasaki died of Leukemia at age 12 as a result of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1948. In the hopes of getting well, she began her prayers of folding 1000 origami cranes. She wrote of her cranes: ‘ I will write Peace on your wings and you will fly all over the world.‘. Sadako died before she completed her goal. The rest of the world has taken up the prayer of folding origami cranes for WorldPeace.
This is our cry. This is our prayer.
Peace in the World !
Vicki Vogt, Librarian
Perkins Braille and Talking Book Library
175 North Beacon St.
Watertown, MA 02472
617-972-7418
Planet of the Blind 
Tonight, we held our lantern floating ceremony to commemorate the Hiroshima atomic bombing. We’ve sent off lanterns across the water every year for many years, with varying results, depending on wind and tide and lantern design. But tonight all the factors favoured us, and the fragile wood and tissue paper lanterns floated for a long time. They caught the tidal current and headed north up the Gare Loch for over a mile and some of them drifted right up to the edge of the British nuclear submarine base at Faslane on the west coast of Scotland. Each of the four submarines there carry the equivalent of 4,500 Hiroshimas. The little candle lights were miniscule, compared to the light reflected on the water from such a major military base, but their lights carried so many souls across the water: not just Hiroshima souls, but so many more, millions lost to war and toil, unknown to me, but also those I’ve known through my life, who are now absent. I watched my lantern as it joined the current, watched my dad yet again make his way across the porous boundary that memory creates. The lights are a chance for contemplation, in a world where so much that is happening provokes anger. The opportunity for contemplation prevents the anger from devolving into despair, or at least gives me a little levee against a potential flood of despair.
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