Today I finally launch the BIG project. You are invited to participate in a brand new E PLURIBUS US FLAG. This one is to celebrate our President Elect Barack Obama. It will be 36 feet wide and 24 feet high and made from cloth pieces 3″ by 6″ from all your different cultures, a true expression of E Pluribus, Unum: one flag out of many. This project is an invocation for a new USA where we work together in harmony, where we willingly through the work of our hands stitch our future together to create something wonderful. The diversity of this country is a magnificent asset and we are already an example of how diverse people can live together with respect.
I have been working to clarify this concept for a few years now and I am only beginning to see a change in the tide of understanding. Let’s keep working on it. We are one country, one humanity, one world, one heart, one spirit but we can be in different places, wearing different clothing, of different colors, dancing different steps, eating different food, making different treasures and celebrating different ideas; that’s what makes life exciting. I love and respect your difference from me, I delight in you being different from me, I enjoy those times and places where we interact, where I learn new things about you and about me. I remember that we are essentially vast beings resounding with potential so let’s play together with respect.
The world is changing and in difficult times we must remember who we are and celebrate our heritage that supports us. Our United States of America heritage is a grand vision, a sacred vision of respect and a vision inspiring to all throughout the world. “One country indivisible”, “freedom and justice for all”, “pursuit of happiness”. These are ideas that belong to all of us and within that we bring with us ideas of community from our personal heritage. We can bring all this together; unify ourselves and unify our community yet still express and celebrate our diversity.
This new E PLURIBUS flag is a project that celebrates, “Made in the USA”. It is a project that promotes respect for all cultural ideas. It is a project that shows patriotism can be of various forms and yet still red, white and blue. Most pointedly it celebrates harmony, like an orchestra we need diversity in order to produce the richest experience of the music of life.
Please join me in making this celebratory US flag out of the symbols of our diverse cultures. To participate check out the participate page on my website; http://www.epluribus.us/site/participate.php. We need about 7,000 pieces of (strong) cloth to stitch together to make this flag. Send a piece of red, or white or blue cloth. You are welcome to embroider, weave, knit, crochet, appliqué or otherwise create a cloth in your style. I would also love to hear if there is a story about your submission but please keep it to a single typed page. Please do not send old treasures that may be weak with age instead frame them and put them on your wall for your descendants.
I welcome you to donate to the construction costs or to volunteer to help in the construction of the flag. Information about how to do this is on the participate page.
I hope that you will join me in creating this flag together. If you are only interested in updates on our progress please sign up to receive emails.