Flags

Today is Flag Day and I don't have an American flag to hang, or wave or even stick in a pot. My dad used to put a flag in a metal post on the front "stoop" (we had three cement stairs which constituted our porch) on Memorial Day, Flag Day, Fourth of July. Since we went to visit the Fonte family cemetary plot every Sunday so that Dad could trip the two evergreens on each side of the granite gravestone, we often saw the VFW putting out flags on Sundays before a holiday. I have been to Arlington, San Diego and even our own local cemetary and seen the tiny graveside flags blowing in the wind.

Once, when a friend and academic colleague and I went to a conference in Athens, Georgia, on our winding way from Atlanta to Athens, we say Confederacy Flags hanging on porches and the occasional pole with the Confederacy flag hanging above the Stars and Stripes.

There's the iconic sight of a flag being hoisted on Iwo Jima, later set in a sculpture to freeze a moment in time that, it seems from later research, might never have occurred. Right now, I can see flags of the world unfurled in the stands and streets of the World Cup in South Africa.

Flags are waved to start a car race, flags are thrown down to mark a penalty in football (whether it is U.S. football or European "football" which is soccer). White flags are supposed to signal a truce and, of course, there is the Scull and Bones flag for pirate ships.

I don't know when the first flag was invented--not the 1777 U.S. flag, but the first flag for a group of cave people in France or nomads in Africa. It's a way, I suppose, of saying "this is who we are" and maybe you can be part of us, or not. It's a way of identifying a boundary.

I feel as if I need a tiny flag of my own these days--to send a signal of "do not disturb me, I am writing" or "please help me, I am feeling blue." It would be a good idea to learn how to signal, not only boundaries, but our changing directions of life. A flag could suggest to us which way the wind is blowing and we could adjust our speed accordingly.

Just for today, I will hoist my flag and test our the wind--I will color it yellow and lavendar like the petals on one of my porch flowers. The flag will be my guide for today's adventures.