Respect the Flag

Happy Fourth of July everyone! Albeit a little late...

This holiday weekend, I went to an Independence Day party at my good friend's house. It's the first time in five years I have been in the States for America's birthday, and my memory of the overflowing amount of red, white and blue appear to have been overblown somewhat. But then, I don't work for Disney any more, I work for the competition, so maybe it's just been less in my face this year.

Anyway, it was an enjoyable time - lots of friends I haven't seen in a long time in the same place, including two of my very good friends who are here from the UK, so there was some friendly colonial banter going on as well. I wore my Union Jack headboppers (of Royal Wedding fame) and brought my flag to wave as a bit of a joke - after all, we English don't really have a particular day when we celebrate being English. It exists, but we get more excited about Ireland's national day than our own. I am intending to change this by having a St. George's Day party next year, even though ironically I completely forgot about it this year....

While we are talking about flags, I had a bit of a disagreement with my hubby's daughter right at the end of the night. She was holding my Union Jack flag like one might hold a shoe that has dog poo on it and trying to get me to take it off her hands. She thought she was being funny, and of course didn't mean any offense,  but I was not impressed. Yes I was a bit tired and emotional, but the fact of the matter is this. In the United States, the flag is everything - this is one thing I really like about America. I might not be a big monarchist but I still have to sing God Save The Queen at the football. In the States, you may not like the current president or disagree with this amendment or that, but your allegiance isn't to one person - it's to the flag and the country that flag represents. There's all these different rules about how you store your flag, how you fold it, how you hang it.

The flag is everything. So when this nine-year-old now in my charge, who has been brought up to respect the flag, failed to respect mine, I felt a little bit of despair. The one thing I felt I have going for me as a - I hate this word - stepmother, was being able to impart some knowledge and respect for other cultures. Clearly so far, I have not done a good job, and need to try harder.

Needless to say, if I was at home I doubt I would have cared. But expatriation makes you care about things you never realised mattered before - so that's why the St. George's Day party is going to be on next year.

I also tried to pick up some bargain basement fireworks on the way home to stockpile for Bonfire Night (November 5th, AKA Guy Fawkes Night, and the pinnacle of the UK's fireworks-selling calendar) - but the gentleman in his tent clearly felt that 15 minutes left of Independence Day was enough time for him to not need to negotiate on price for the huge pile of pyrotechnics he still had left over. Never mind - next year I'll be prepared!

Happy birthday, new home. I miss you, home home.