Antonyms and Synonyms

Making origami peace cranes with Stacey.

It was Friday the 13th, so our English Club meeting on that date began with a fun conversation about what it meant. Was it a lucky day and number or an unlucky day and number? Is it like the horror movie? Why is Friday the 13th filled with so many superstitions, even foreboding.

"Foreboding?" I passed out the new dictionaries we had just bought for the library. Natalia and Tanya had wisely decided to buy several copies. I love watching people thumb through the dictionary. "Something bad is going to happen," Alina said, just about the fastest thinker going. "I have a bad feeling in my stomach," Ira said. And she kind of looked it, the way she said it. What are some synonyms, I asked. Fear, dread, apprehension, premonition. Good words!

What are some antonyms, the opposite of "foreboding." More turning of pages. “Good luck,” Dima said. “I think Friday the 13th is good luck.” His English is excellent and he loves using it. I think it's lucky too; I was born on the 13th, and so was my daughter Michelle. “Well then,” Maria chimed in, “it IS good." Tatiana, an English teacher who would like to work abroad or for an organization like Peace Corps, thought it meant "Something good is going to happen. It’s like optimism, opposite of pessimism.”

"Well, speaking of good things and good luck," I continued, "now I want to read you a story." It was my blog about Judy and her students in Blacksburg, Virginia, and their gift to our library. I read slowly, pronouncing each word, defining some. The members of the English Club were silent and thoughtful. They got it. They knew this was a story about a special gift from special people. A selfless gift. The kindness of strangers. We talked about it, with some reverence, and much appreciation. A good lesson in giving and receiving. Antonyms and synonyms.

Then Stacey, our TEFL volunteer, said she knew how to make peace cranes. What luck! And that’s what we did for the rest of our time together on this Friday the 13th, that and continuing with translations of authors and titles into Russian for the librarians.

While members folded and folded, this way and that, I googled ‘origami peace cranes’ on my laptop to show them how much information there is online, including great “how-to” videos. There are different styles to this paper art, we learned, different ways to fold. Stacey said she knew only this one she was doing. I thought it looked complicated. But it was rewarding, too, to see a peace crane emerge, and to flap its wings.

The Japanese believe you need 1,000 peace cranes to bring good luck, health or peace. It’s the origin of the “1000 Peace Cranes” project to remember the victims of Hiroshima, and to promote nuclear disarmament, why President Obama signed America on to the project for the first time this year.

I don’t know if we’ll get to 1,000 peace cranes, but the ones we made were for Judy and her students, symbolically giving to them as they gave to us. To give and to receive. Antonyms and synonyms