I Have a Problem
Yes, I’ll say it again. I have a problem.
About 4 years ago I bought an American flag to put in a pot of flowers to decorate my outdoors space. Once the growing season was over, I attached it to an outdoors railing, This flag is one that children would wave in a 4th of July parade and I got it at the dollar store. It has weathered many, many a storm and the heat of the sun. Now it is faded, tattered, torn and mildewed.
It’s time to discard the flag but I can’t. Numerous times I have taken it to the dumpster with my other trash, and have come back home with it. I just can’t get rid of it. The red, white and blue represents everything I value in America. When I look at it I see opportunity, patriotism, the belief that those who live under that flag, my fellow citizens, are essentially good people.
Because the flag is unsightly does not mean it has lost what it means to me. Just like people who don’t age as well as others, what they hold in their hearts and souls is often well worthy of listening to. Through their own up’s and downs and trials they’ve learned a lot about life.
So, for now, my little dollar store flag will sit in my closet along with other things that are sentimental to me. That is where the the real value lies. I am grateful that my generation learned what our National flag represents and how to respectfully fold it.
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
