A thought about the flag and the country.

I was out on my balcony a few moments ago watching the ducks and Canada geese paddling in the large pond in my complex. Then I decided to unfurl the flag we have on our balcony as the wind had whipped it, yet again into a bundle. I realized something profound (at least for me): the flag does indeed represent the country in which I live. After been buffetted by wind and weather throughout the winter and now being bleached by the sun, it has endured a lot.

That flag is definitely a great metaphor for this country as a whole. It has been shredded, torn, worn and pulled in a thousand different directions at once. It has been wrung, flapped, smacked by the winds of constant change and pelted with snow, rain, sleet and cold. It has been splattered with mud, leaves, branches and debris from the environment in which it flys.

However, it has never fallen, refused to fly or just given up and tumbled to the ground. Why is that? I believe it is because the flag, like the country consists of numberless pieces of thread, each relying one on the other in a weave of trust, hope and belief. Some of the threads have been badly damaged, some of the threads may not now be so well attached to the others. Some of the threads may in fact have dissappeared. But enough of the threads are clinging to each other that the whole effect is one of a solid, beautiful emblem of the nation!

This country will survive the present crisis just as it has done innumerable times before. Men and women go into battle with the flag emblazoned on their clothes. Our greatest heros, those who charge towards danger when the rest of us shrink away, deserve to wear the flag with pride and satisfaction. Every country has it's own flag and they also have the same meaning. But what makes a country great is not it's leaders and their followers, but it's ordinary citizen people who love the flag and what it represents. Despite our differences, we all are the threads who, when combined in the right manner, make a great country!

Stay strong, stay well and remember, after all this is over, the flag will still wave over the home of the free and the land of the brave!