Hope Flags Flying

September 22, 2008

Kathie and I were at a big Obama Mama family picnic yesterday here in Austin. It was a perfect day in the park with well over 400 people in attendance. Mamas and papas too and kids and dogs and picnics and great music played by Matt the Electrician – all of us there to show our support and hope for change.

We were invited to set up a craft table at the event – ostensibly for kids but really for anyone that wanted to participate. We wanted to make flags – inspired by the Tibetan Prayer flags that fly so beautifully everywhere. Kathie dreamed up the idea of making “hope” flags that people could embellish. We went with hope so as to make it non-political for the kids – even though we were of course at a political rally.  While Kathie and I are both for Obama but we didn’t want to hoist politics onto the kids. We instead wanted them to think of the message of the bigger picture of hope, which is how we see Obama – as a messenger of hope.

Once we had the idea, Kathie’s creative genius went to work and she beautifully stamped out on white fabric 5 different prompts: I am Hope…, What I can do…, Hope to me sounds like…, Hope to me feels like…, Hope to me looks like… The idea was that each person could choose a prompt that resonated with them and then draw or write out their feelings about it. They would then choose a background fabric from the incredible swatches gleaned from Kathie’s scrap pile. Kathie and Kayci would sew the white onto the background using a couple of random buttons from the button bag. A couple of ambitious kids further embellished and embroidered on their own. Voila, the individual hope flag was born and strung up with all the other hope flags made by the crowds.

The end result was a beautiful string of about 75 or 80 colorful hope flags flying over the crowd collecting the breeze and blowing hope out across the country.

Kathie and I both realize that hope will be our focus in these next few weeks while we build up to the election. Our goal is to skip all the negative chatter and the negative players and keep our eyes on the prize. We will actively visualize the day when Obama is taking his oath of office next January and our country can begin the steps of change and hope that are so imperative right here and right now.

Posted in Uncategorized