Launched

My fleet of five paper boats was launched on Tuesday this week. I placed them carefully in a mailing pouch with a note about their history and sent them off to explore the world via US airmail. Each day I wonder where they might be - perhaps first a plane to New York followed by an international flight. Have they arrived in London or another city in the UK? Maybe they are at this moment on a train to the most northern tip of Scotland where they will be greeted by someone I've never met.

Most days the world's problems seem too overwhelming and I feel like I am too insignificant to make a difference. Participation in this global project to support a house museum thousands of miles away has expanded my thinking. Every small action by itself is just a drop in the bucket, but thousands of drops soon overflow. Who would think I and many others would be charmed by the simple idea of making paper boats? 

We visited a local house museum today. As we looked at the furniture, clothing, toys, photographs, and ephemera of a family that came here by wagon train more than 150 years ago, I thought about Mary Ann's Cottage - a place I had never heard of a few weeks ago. I want to say thank you to an artist in Scotland for your grand idea.

Paper Boats

My desk is littered with the remnants of two days (and one late night) spent creating paper boats. A pile of unsuccessful attempts to master the art of Origami paper folding is mixed together with partially unfolded prototypes made from recycled office paper and an assortment of refined designs in various stages of completion.

It all started with a short article in the latest FiberArts magazine about an artist in Scotland who is collecting paper boats from around the world for an auction to benefit a house museum in her area called Mary-Ann's Cottage. One night this week when I couldn't sleep, I decided to try my hand at folding a boat and now I'm hooked on the little vessels. I even made one to give as a birthday card to my father's 94 year old wife.

The challenge of creating a little fleet to send off to Scotland made out of digital photos I've taken on the Oregon Coast is only part of the allure. It has more to do with participating in something bigger than myself that brings together creative people from all around the world who are forever connected by the simple task of folding paper. When we feel a connection with those in distant places we realize the differences between us are not what matters. Helping to save a little cottage in Scotland by folding a paper boat touches on the essence of what makes us all the same.