"The Sundry Stars and Stripes" (in revision)

Would you please edit my essay on "What the United States Flag Stands For?" Thanks, faithful followers.



The magnificent mark of Betsy Ross on America, its majestic flag, reveals the ideals of supreme service, pervasive purity, and vibrant veracity. It is the archetype of the rule of the majority, and the prototype of the rights of the minority.

Sacrifice founded and even now demonstrates the promenading beauty of America. The crimson tinge shimmers in the hearts of the masses, summoning stance for the independence that Our Revolution first fought for over two-hundred years ago. With blood dripping from the veins, the flag harkens to America that it must keep fighting for freedom, for tradition, for democracy.

The Flag of the United States is a bellwether beacon of the integrity of the nation and the creative goodness of freedom. America exudes luminescence from its core, from the very ivory hue of the flag. America lets its light shine to the world as the flag shines rays of democracy onto the masses. The flag asserts that America should be a country in which the white stripes never grey with blame. It holds fast to a patriotism that knows that it is both, as the word patriotism itself suggests, paternal and riotous. For an insurrection to promote righteousness is never scorned in the face of a purer nation.

But the capstone of America is that it rests upon a history of truth. The royal blue background of the flag behind the starry sky calls to mind that America is in quest of facts. In the journey for purity and righteous revolution, sober judgment and a basis in imaginative realism allow us to be really free. Extraordinary reliance on actuality sets up America as a demonstrably good reference point for democracy.

Indeed, the flag buttresses the American life with a desire for foundational goodness. We stack up hopes to be above reproach and to be held together by the honor of the people. The breath-taking autonomy of the uniquely pure, truth-seeking, shielding country makes us truly the land of the lavishly liberated and home of the honored heroes.

A Bicycle Built for Two

Will I say something of import
For once upon some day?
"But You're the Answer!" I retort,
"An everlasting Quay."

Friends deal for it, my weary heart;
Long promises collide.
But my beginning is a start--
"At least," I say, "I tried."

Open the gates to liberty!
(My lips are pursed and rife.)
And sing to me that I shall be
An everlasting life.

I know I deal my best friends out
Of really knowing souls.
But I'll rejoice and voice a shout
In spite of all life's tolls.

In my most peaceful moments I feel a blanket wrapping me up and hugging me, like lovers reunited. This is rare: but not so rare as to induce despair. These moments auction transgression and accumulate as memorable souvenirs that offer that loving gift afresh, "We have peace!" Then, I feel the most plainly pure. Oh, come again pacific pauses, like pacts between warring nations.

Changing my mind,

MM

Rejoice, rejoice!

The only person who doesn't need schooling is the one school pushes to excel at its standard of "studenthood." I've outgrow the school system; it's time I grow on my own.

Sister Winter is approaching.

Introduction

My name is Michael Mountain. In reality, this is not my real name. But that will remain anonymous except to those who know me.

Today, I learned that I quite literally have a crush on Winter. Those jittery feelings known to upset the stomach, to twist the mind, and to remove all reason are how I see her. She is not really real, but she comes every year.

That's how I think: cycles compose life. But the best life knows of undulation, cherishes her, and comes out on the other side whole--with basics and simplicity still intact. My Winter will come back. She cannot do anything but it.

I appreciate eccentricity with a vision. "Where there is no vision the people perish."

My vision is a Christ-vision. I'm a mess, if by nothing else, in my mind. And if for no other reason, should I know you, that I have probably hurt you in word and in deed. I apologize. Yet, my faults behind, the Christ-vision sounds good and is good, even though it is true--a rare quality these days.

There is my view. This is a start. May popular sensibilities be challenged.