hidden image

The Flag, a Fruit of the Root...!

Robert Clements Robert Clements
18 Mar 2024

The house with a flag flying atop it looked with disdain at the neighbouring home with no flag on it. "No flag?" it asked.

"It's an invisible one I fly!" said the home with no flag. "The people within my house don't need a flag above expressing what they believe in, but believe it should be expressed through their lives!"

The flag on top of the house waved slightly unsteadily at the thought, even as the home that flew the flag asked roughly, "And what kind of lives should those that live within you reveal that manifests itself in the invisible flag atop you?"

The home with no flag smiled and whispered, "When those within show through their lives, qualities such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, then their lives will be the invisible flag that flies above me! Because that flag is the fruit of the root!"

"Fruit of what root?" asked the building with the flag atop.

"The root on whom the flag's beliefs are based upon. And when the root is a divine one, then the fruits that it produces will also be heavenly for the people around to taste!"

"And those fruits are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control?" asked the house with the flag that had now stopped fluttering.

"Yes, indeed!" said the home with the invisible flag flying atop it. Those people walking outside can see those fruits in the lives of the people who live within me, and that is the invisible flag that flies above!"

The home with the flag atop stared hard at the flag flying above and asked, "Are you a fruit of the root you are rooted to?"

"Yes, of course," said the flag. That's what all flags are!"

"And do you have all the lovely qualities that the invisible flag on the adjoining building has?" asked the home, staring even harder at the flag on top.

"That question can only be answered by the lives of the people within you," said the flag, "Do our people show love to one another and to their neighbours? Is joy and happiness reflected on their faces? Is there deep peace within them or restlessness and unruliness? Are they patient and tolerant of those who follow a different path of faith, and do they show kindness even if they form a part of a majority? Are they faithful to the law and Constitution and gentle to even their enemies? And do they exercise self-control and restraint in their language and speeches, or are their words that of hate and anger?

It was not the lack of wind that caused all the flags put up over all the homes to droop, wondering if those who lived below had fruits that reflected a Divine root or not!

Recent Posts

In a 1947 address at the University of Allahabad, Jawaharlal Nehru envisioned universities as temples of humanism, reason and truth. Today, shrinking public funding, rampant privatisation, ideological
apicture G Ramachandram
02 Mar 2026
At Rashtrapati Bhavan, replacing Edwin Lutyens' bust with C Rajagopalachari is framed as decolonisation, yet, in truth, it reflects a broader politics of renaming under Narendra Modi—symbolism over su
apicture A. J. Philip
02 Mar 2026
Gen-Z call to make leaders rely on public schools and hospitals underscores youth priorities—education, health care, and jobs—amid rising freebies, inequality, and weak public investment. The Supreme
apicture Jacob Peenikaparambil
02 Mar 2026
Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil's micro-minority appeal coincides with Kerala's delayed response to the Justice JB Koshy Commission, whose recommendations aim to address internal Christian disparitie
apicture John Dayal
02 Mar 2026
The All India Catholic Union warns of rising violence, legal curbs, and social exclusion targeting Christians across the Northeast, citing unrest in Manipur and enforcement of the Arunachal Pradesh Fr
apicture IC Correspondent
02 Mar 2026
The 2002 Gujarat violence, following the Sabarmati Express tragedy, became one of independent India's darkest chapters. Allegations of state complicity, contested investigations, and enduring survivor
apicture Cedric Prakash
02 Mar 2026
In his second encyclical, Laudato Si': On Care for Our Common Home (2015), Pope Francis offers a sustained moral critique of consumerism, unrestrained economic expansion, and ecological indifference.
apicture Joseph Maliakan
02 Mar 2026
As nuclear powers like the United States and Russia modernise vast arsenals while policing others, critics decry a double standard embedded in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The world risks bec
apicture P. A. Chacko
02 Mar 2026
O Jurist Dr. Gregory Stanton, You talked of genocide in ten slow steps I come from a land Where we have been walking those steps For six thousand years Without shoes, Without dignity, Without
apicture Dr Suryaraju Mattimalla
02 Mar 2026
The robotic dog is not the real problem. It is the comfort we now have with make-believe. It is the applause that follows every convenient explanation.
apicture Robert Clements
02 Mar 2026