CUL-DE-SAC

About ten years ago I screwed a metal socket to the frame of my garage door to hold an American flagpole. And over the years I’ve done a pretty good job of flying the flag on the appropriate holidays… 4^th of July, Memorial Day, etc. But last week I forgot to fly the flag on Veterans Day.

I should be ashamed for being unpatriotic. But it wasn’t my fault. It was the Union Tribune’s fault.

The San Diego Union Tribune used to provide a useful service to good Americans by putting Old Glory on the front of the paper, top left-hand corner, on patriotic holidays. On July 4^th you’d walk out your front door, look at the front page and be reminded it was a day when you should show the colors.

But then came September 11, 2001. After that, the UT management decided the paper needed to show the flag all the time. So there it was on the front of every edition, Sunday through Saturday.

That would have been fine if they’d put a limit on it. The paper could have observed a period of mourning, so to speak, and then gone back to the old way of doing things. But I guess removing the flag from the front of the paper, for any reason, is like a politician arguing we should have shorter prison sentences for rapists. It never happened.

The result is the flag on the front page has become wallpaper; a cliché. Because that’s what a cliché’s is: An expression that becomes so familiar you stop listening to it… in this case, you stop seeing it.

Getting back to Veterans Day… I picked up the paper and I didn’t see the flag, even though it was right in front of me. I’d been ignoring that graphic for years, so why should I notice it on Veterans Day? Ergo I didn’t bother to put up the flag.

My point is symbols only have meaning when they catch our attention. Turning the American flag into wallpaper doesn’t make us to think about being Americans. So drop the daily flag! It’s the patriotic thing to do.

Halloween this year was like it always is on my street. Little kids start coming with their parents while the sun is still out. Older kids come late. At 10:30 a 20-year-old girl rang the doorbell as I was heading for bed.

Trick or treat, she said. I told her I was out of candy.

My neighborhood in Normal Heights becomes a great thoroughfare on Halloween. Most of the kids seem to come from other neighborhoods where they might feel less safe at night or where there are lots of apartment buildings. My street is lined with small single-family homes and it’s greatly desired by trick-or-treaters and their parents. I see minivans pull up on the corner and disgorge bunches of kids dressed as ghouls.

So I buy tons of Halloween candy and I always run out. We welcome the dress-up parade by carving pumpkins and lighting candles. I love Halloween. And I don’t just say that because my wife and I have two kids.

Halloween is the only day of the year when neighbors (I call them neighbors whether they come in minivans or not) come up to your door to say hello. The only currency they want is a piece of candy. But it’s not about the candy. It’s about the fun, the adventure and the exchange of community spirit.

Why does this happen so rarely? People in California don’t go caroling at Christmas. Is that because the holiday is not ecumenical (mustn’t offend Jews and Muslims)? Maybe it’s because people in this state stopped learning to sing when Prop 13 killed off grade school music classes. Or maybe it’s because we just don’t bother to create a neighborhood community.

The life and shape of our communities have changed over the years as political customs and technology have moved them to and fro. Today, a lot of people are more at home on the Internet than they are in their local neighborhood park… that’s assuming they have a local neighborhood park.

I can’t predict the future, but I will celebrate human interaction when it happens on the street and on the front porch, as long as it’s not somebody just coming by to ask for money. Sorry. I still have a “no soliciting” sign next to my front door.