Word of the day: Red, White and Blue
(The garden was nice enough to provide the right colors.)
I love symbols because they are so malleable. You can take anything and have it stand for something else. Years (and years) ago, I had a box filled with little scraps of jewelry, rocks, broken china, pins, etc. Every item in that box was a symbol for a person or an event in my life. But how would anyone know that the little broken piece of china was for Susan who was slightly broken and who joined the Moonies in search of family and stability? In fact, I didn’t even know these meanings myself until one day I started pulling everything out to show a boyfriend and I heard myself describing the symbolic meanings.
I am sure that I am not the only one who wears various items of clothes or jewelry as talismans for special purposes…like the pewter Viking ship I used to wear when I had to sail forth into a tricky situation. I’m sure everyone has their private symbols. Once I heard about a statistician who got himself a vanity license plate with randomly generated numbers and letters on it. That may or may not have been a joke.
Communal symbols are more interesting, perhaps. In some parts of the world, black can be a symbol for death; in other parts white. My husband has a very large family, which means that someone is always dying. Each death has a viewing, and we attend each and every one. Customs being as they are, my own family had not indulged in viewings, just funerals followed by vast quantities of food. So, going to view a dead person lying in an open coffin was quite a new experience. But I knew that I should wear reasonably respectable, reasonably dark clothing as a symbol of respect for both the deceased and the mourners. When I looked around, I see that I am sharing this symbol with everyone else present, remarkable in a family that sees a nice t-shirt and jeans as the height of fashion.
For years I thought the red, white and blue of the U.S. flag stood for liberty, equality and brotherhood … because of a series of French movies I saw (and have forgotten). But when I looked on google to see about the colors of the American flag, I saw that white stands for purity, red stands for valor, and blue stands for justice. Maybe, as it’s just a theory. Well, I thought, maybe those other meanings were for the French flag. But google revealed that other possibilities include the clergy, the nobility and the bourgeoisie. I was sort of sorry that I looked.
And what about that currently contested symbol of the confederate flag? One of my in-law relatives put up a confederate flag in front of her house. She took a picture and posted it on Facebook, where she already has 36 likes and counting. I asked her about it and she said, “I see it as a symbol of southern pride, not a symbol of racism!! It in no way represents hate or violence in my eyes. To me it's kind of a memorial to those who fought bravely.” I have my own opinions on what the flag might mean to her and why one might want to identify with southern pride, but, it’s a symbol. That means it could mean anything. The best idea I ever heard with respect to de-signifying the confederate flag was for people, black people in particular to adopt it as their own symbol and wear it on t-shirts. And speaking of “southern pride,” I find it fascinating that rural southern culture is gloried in music and popular culture as being symbolic of American culture more generally. When and how did that happen? It really wasn’t that long ago that anyone who did not actually come from the Deep South viewed that particular region with quite a bit of discomfort and distrust.
So very interesting...I agree that, while some symbols are considered "universal", they can still mean different things to different people. And I also have various jewelry and clothing that I wear for a particular purpose or mood. (I really love my "girls-fun-day" ensemble) Thanks for posting this project - I love a good thought provoking session!
Pretty little garden and how kind of it to fit the word of the day! I do think symbols in the initial presentation have a particular meaning. However, people do alter them over time and in a sense "change" them. But that's relativism and I'm not sure the person or people who first coined the symbol would like the change in meaning. That really has nothing to do with the Confederate Flag controversy. I always thought it had something to do with State's rights, but my brain has never been clear on American history so I could be wrong. What irks me about most of the news these days is that it's not reported because it's important, it's reported to purposely fan the flames. I have no respect for it and therefore look for news via other sources. So I will now get off my soap box and say "nice shot" and be done with it! Said way too much!!
I remember in 4th grade when my dog was murdered by the neighbor, I deliberately chose brown slacks, his color, and a rainbow colored shirt to remind me to remember the happy times, when I had to go to school that day. And e ER since that conscious decision to be happy and use a symbol to remind me, I do it a lot.
