Thanksgiving and the Art of Cultural Exchange

My Japanese daughter, Chieko, demonstrates how to make origami

It's rather remarkable that a flat piece of paper, when folded in a particular way, transforms itself into a three-dimensional shape.  Emerging from the folded paper, cranes, boxes and balls take shape. Origami is the art of endless possibilities, and a traditional Japanese craft.  This thanksgiving, those around my table included my former Japanese foreign exchange student and her family.  So, while her six year old son and baby daughter tasted the traditional American thansgiving menu for the first time, Chieko shared  her Japanese tradition of paper folding after the meal.  Picture grown men and women hunched over the kitchen table carefully manipulating bits of paper into folded shapes.  Priceless.