Joy Is The Flag Flown High
From The Castle Of My Heart
I get immense joy from colours flying on the wind as flags, set against the blue sky and white clouds, they always make my whole being smile. And not just flags as we usually think of them nowdays, I have no interest in nationalistic kinds of patriotic BS flag waving………………not always beautiful against the sky. Excepting the ones shown below and the central subject of this wee post. The only country flags we fly at McKinley Rd are flown in solidarity.
I do however, look forward to flying some indigenous Maori flags here in Aotearoa, especially this one. And in solidarity! More info here.
In another life I used to sing the above title lines in a song or ‘chorus’ as they were called. The context was Judeo Christian, as I was a funde (fundamentalist). I thought I was a thinking one with a good brain still attached, and not one of the intellect/brain in the wardrobe kind. Intellect seemed frowned upon and unspiritual. I think there is a fundamentalist kind of spectrum and I saw myself in the balanced part of the range, true to the core, but mind still worked and was excercised. Nor subjugated to some evangelical wonderkind guru type mind taking over my own and dictating thought!
I wasn’t a hook line and sinker believer, and that is a whole other story that I am determined not to bore you with. Things change, we reflect, the frog gets out of the warming bath, we sit on the side of a hill to think and observe, we move on as the world looks different now being able to see outside the bath and away from formulaic and closed circular thinking. x + y always being = to f kinda stuff. Interesting read on fundamentalism here.
I loved this song unknowing at the time how flags would become a huge part of my life and creativity. A rich and joyous part of my life.
To the point of me struggling to understand why everyone isn’t flying a flag? They are so healthy, creative and plain ole’ good for you. And to clarify, I don’t mean nationalistic kinda nation flags, I mean creative ones. (tho this story was motivated by several national flags I have chosen to fly)
Joy is the flag flown high from the castle of my heart means something different to me now. Back in those days the following lines said, ‘because the King is in residence there’. And yup you guessed it, the King was Jesus.
The Bloated Orange Yam Gang may be in the process or rewriting it as we speak!
I loved it in a theologically thinking sense because real Christians wonder about how to, and by their lives make real ‘the Kingdom of God’ on earth. Jesus talked about it, and it had heaps to do with love, and definitely not Brian Tamaki self appointed Bishop Eftpos styles, talking up an army of faith, marching, fighting and a role protecting Kiwi and Australians for their own and national good. Yeah right!
I had nailed the ‘Kingdon of God’ definition down through reading and study and my personal resonances about Jesus and faith back then. The song is correct!
The kingdom of God was the rule of God in the hearts of humans and humankind…….of course in those days they said ‘men’….but we know better now.
The flags I sew and fly are more in a Bhuddist style, tho I am not a Bhuddist. I like the concept and symbolism of the flags being like continual prayers and good intentions on the wind. I really love that. My lofi flags are made from 4$ per metre poplin from Spotlight. The colours fade, they disintergrate eventually and I am so okay with that. I am no control freak perfectionist. I exist within a context way way bigger than me, me The Little Red Hen, me aka Moi!
Recently, April 2025, it was time to modify some of my first flagpoles (the design has evolved from a single piece of rebar driven into the ground), it was time also to replace disintergrated flags, threadbare and ragged from 24/7 life in the outdoors. They had been up for over 1 1/2 years. There are some posts on my flags and pole construction here that will complete the MKYRD story for you. There’s a lot there I would love to have shared and you be aware of.
Here are some pics of the replacements so far. The poles with the Palestinian and Ukraine flags needed no structural mods. I replaced the flags and thumped the poles back into the earth/Papatuanuku…… (sorry earth…its a bit of a violent operation) The other poles I moved down near the workshop to weld on a fine day sometime soon.
As always,
thank you for being here. Your presence, heart and mind is valued and appreciated so mucho.
I realise only 50% of subscribers open emails and read them. I know well the absolute limits logistically to how many posts we can read and the time reading everything takes. It can steal your life one minute at time.. We don’t get that back, and despite me trying to change my life habits (and wrote about it here), I still spend too long sitting and reading about stuff I can’t change, instead of doing stuff I can. Maybe you can relate.
Below is a cool Ted talk on Creativity I came across the other day. And very relative to these times.
Namaste,
Graham
aka The Little Red Hen
aka Moi
I read all the way through, and also shared that Ted Talk with a Polish “English Student” who is fast becoming a friend after only two lessons/conversations. (I put “English student” in quotes as her English is already vastly superior to most native speakers, and she just wanted someone she could use it to converse with.)
I like it when people write a creative piece that uses a concrete symbol - like a flag - to take off into a mediation on lots of other things, all woven around that symbol.
"I wasn’t a hook line and sinker believer, and that is a whole other story that I am determined not to bore you with. Things change, we reflect, the frog gets out of the warming bath, we sit on the side of a hill to think and observe, we move on as the world looks different now being able to see outside the bath and away from formulaic and closed circular thinking. x + y always being = to f kinda stuff. Interesting read on fundamentalism here."
Your thinking is definitely not closed and formulaic, thats for sure! :)