Scarred for Life

I see it almost everyday. Right outside my office window it flies. Rarely do I pay attention to it other than when it is flapping so hard it makes a whipping noise. It is the flag of the United States of America. Like the flags of every other country in the world, it has specific meaning. It is a symbol embedded with symbols. I won't write today about the feelings of patriotism that is, in some, inspired by the stars and stripes; that is not my intent. My intent is to write about something very visible that has a history - a history that I have not really thought about, not until it was blogday, at least.

Disregarding the Grand Union flag of the Continental army (which was never recognized as a flag for the the entirety of the union), there have been 26 different flags that the United States has used as the flying symbol of the country. If asked before my research, I could have picked out two: the 13 colonies flag (the one supposedly seamed by the esteemed Betsy Ross) and the current one consisting of 13 stripes and fifty stars - which symbolically stand for the 13 original colonies of the country and now the fifty states which make up the union. I've never really thought about it that hard but I guess every time a new state was added to the union they would have had to have a new flag. If you want to see a progression of flags from the inception of the country in 1776 until 1959 (our present flag) go to Wikipedia and look it up. Our current flag, like almost all symbols, has a tinge of folklore with how it was adopted as our country's flag.

When Alaska and Hawaii were being considered for statehood in the 1950s, more than 1,500 designs were spontaneously submitted to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Although some of them were 49-star versions, the vast majority were 50-star proposals. At least three, and probably more of these designs were identical to the present design of the 50-star flag. At the time, credit was given by the executive department to the United States Army Institute of Heraldry for the design.

Of these proposals, one created by 17-year old Robert G. Heft in 1958 as a school project has received the most publicity. His mother was a seamstress, but refused to do any of the work for him. He originally received a B- for the project. After discussing the grade with his teacher, it was agreed (somewhat jokingly) that if the flag was accepted by Congress, the grade would be reconsidered. Heft's flag design was chosen and adopted by presidential proclamation after Alaska and before Hawaii was admitted into the union in 1959. He got an A.

In the basement of our house we have multiple flags. Because Christine and I have a large worldview, we try to collect flags from many of the countries that we spend a goodly amount of time in. The Canadian, Danish, German, Tanzanian, American and English flags hang on the west wall of our basement. The Jamaican flag is there too - my brother bought it for me when he and his wife returned from a second honeymoon. We haven't been to Jamaica, but its got green in it - so we put it next to the Tanzanian flag - green makes me happy.

The Australian flag has an interesting history also. I could go through all of the flags but the two prominent ones in my life are, of course, American and Australian. The Flag was established in 1901 when Australia became a federated nation under the 'supervision' of Great Britain. After Federation on 1 January 1901, the new Commonwealth Government held an official competition for a new federal flag in April. The competition attracted over 32,000 entries, including many originally sent to the Review of Reviews. The designs were judged on seven criteria: loyalty to the Empire, Federation, history, heraldry, distinctiveness, utility and cost of manufacture. The majority of designs incorporated the Union Flag and the Southern Cross, but native animals were also popular. Five almost identical entries were chosen as the winning design, and their designers shared the 200 pounds prize money. They were Ivor Evans, a fourteen-year-old schoolboy from Melbourne; Leslie John Hawkins, a teenager apprenticed to an optician from Sydney; Egbert John Nuttall, an architect from Melbourne; Annie Dorrington, an artist from Perth; and William Stevens, a ship's officer from Auckland, New Zealand. The five winners received 40 pounds each.

Incredible, isn't it, the creativity of youth?

The symbolism of the Australian flag: Union Jack - protectorate of England. Seven pointed stars - 6 states and one territory - federation, Southern Cross (five starred constellation seen from all states and territory). For many years, the Australian flag was backgrounded by two colors, either red or blue, until 1954, that is. In that year, the red background was dropped because red was the symbol of communism.

Amazing the how the history of the symbols informs us of what the personality of the country is. The history has shaped how the country views itself.

For me, symbols on flags are like scars on the body. Each scar is a significant moment in the history of a person. And, each scar influences how we respond to stimuli in our environment. Some people are full of scars and will often engage in a game of 'scar wars' with another person to see who has had the most physically traumatic experiences in life.

Some people would say that people with few scars are either a.) incredibly lucky or b.) incredibly dangerous. I would say that people with many scars fall somewhere in the middle of unfortunate and daring. I've got quite a few scars myself; multiple knee surgeries, a head surgery from birth. My brother and I, who are identical twins, have the same scar running down the middle of our heads (we were born without soft spots and needed to have strips of bone removed from each side of the middle of our heads so that we didn't end up looking like twin E.T's when we grew up). I used to tell young children that my brother and I were conjoined when born - right down the middle of the head. The doctor's separated us successfully but left each of us with half a brain. Only conceptually is that true.

Each scar has a story and a memory of trauma. I can remember the instant my knees decided they had had enough torque and blew out. I remember having warts on the tops of my hands and having them frozen during football season. They blistered so badly that I had to wear surgical gloves during football practice so that they wouldn't get infected. It worked until I caught my hand in the face mask of a rushing lineman effectively ripping the glove and all the skin of my knuckles off.

I could go on in detail describing all the scars of my past and perhaps grossing every reader out, but more importantly the scars that I want to talk about are unseen. Whether we like it or not, our hearts are scarred by what others do. As much as we like to say "Sticks and stones may break our bones but words will never hurt me" they do. They hurt bad. We carry the scars of off-hand remarks about our looks, about our personalities and about our ideas. We learn what topics we should stay away from like learning to keeping our hands away from a hot stove. It takes a long time for the scars to heal but one thing remains, the memory of the pain.

There may be moments in your life when you have scarred for life by the actions of another. But what softens our hearts is the universal solvent of faith: Forgiveness. Once we learn to forgive, we free ourselves from the pain of the past. It no longer is a festering wound by a symbolic reminder to be aware of how people can be cruel or mean. And, on the other hand, a symbolic reminder to treat others in the same way that our own soul longs for. When we forgive, the scars of emotional pain can be softened. Forgiveness is less for the other person and more for ourselves. If we don't forgive, we continue to wallow in a sense of resentment. We learn to hate ourselves as much as the other person effectively locking ourselves out of a place of love.

The scar remains - scarred for life; but new life can be born from the pain.