Flying the flag

Right now South Africa is awash with colour, and the profusion of flags all over the country is enhancing the image of the rainbow nation. With all the teams and visitors here now, we are becoming the rainbow world. Obviously South African flags are the most common, waving at us from every imaginable place. But, depending on how Bafana Bafana shape up, other flags may begin to predominate.

Why do we fly these flags? I am told that Admiral Lord Nelson is responsible for the patriotic angle, and that is certainly an important one. We know how deeply some of us feel about our very own flag as a symbol of who we are and what we stand for.

For ages and ages before that flags have been used to identify the nationality of ships at sea and therefore identify a friend or foe. Let’s hope that the friend-or-foe angle won’t become a concern here. Surely we won’t reach a situation where a hated nation’s flag gets burnt.

But again, why are we experiencing this surge of patriotism and flying our flags? Is it just because we’ve been hyped up by the media and all the publicity that can hardly be avoided?  Not everyone is interested in football but many of us are nevertheless wearing our Football Friday shirts as some kind of sign of solidarity and involvement, being part of. But, we might ask, of what and who is benefiting from all this?

I accept that there are plenty of negatives and reasons for concern about the dangers, especially to our children, but focusing on the fun and the family angle and bringing God into the picture is also important.

A musical group to which I belong is putting on the musical Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. The technicolour dreamcoat is of course one of the main features of the show.  This time around, to tie in with the World Cup, we had it made up of the flags of the different countries visiting us, and it has been a big hit with the audiences. So there was a way to link God and current affairs.

Although the story of Joseph, the forgiving brother, is taken from the book of Genesis, there isn’t excessive mention of God directly in the script. God is not often explicitly mentioned in the general World Cup hoo-ha either, but one of the Church’s cup initiatives is the little prayer book, Praying & Playing (download it at www.churchontheball.com) which contains the common prayers, the Mass, the national anthem, a special World Cup prayer, prayers on human trafficking, HIV/Aids, the culture of life and a range of other prayers, for old and young,  for this time and beyond (in the interest of full disclosure, I contributed to the booklet).

These prayers are aimed at locals and visitors and seek to bring God into current everyday life situations, which is always the aim in family ministry. We pray for safety and protection for travellers, and for fair play and for good sportsmanship — qualities we want the teams and our families to practise.

In one Letter to God, Pitso asks: “If all the teams practised as hard as we had to do this week, could they all win? What do you think?”

Some children may identify with Lara: “Dear God, my daddy is never home any more, he’s always out practising or playing soccer or getting drunk with his friends. I just want this whole business to get finished so he can come home and be a good daddy again. Please let him know.”

Even the poor kid’s prayer highlights a reality that will most likely continue after the games.

“We love our game of soccer, Lord,
we play it in our street.
With boys and girls, all ages too,
we play in our bare feet.
No boots or jerseys do we have,
we’re short of funds you know.
I pray that you will help us out,
we want our team to grow.”

My particular prayer at this time is that the World Cup, busy as the time will be, will be a colourful, uniting and family-friendly affair.

I wave my two flags — one of my country of birth and the other of my country of adoption — in the hope that the World Cup will bring families of nations together, not pull them apart, and that this opportunity to welcome the world will show up our best family qualities of hospitality and warmth.

And speaking of warmth, if it gets cold and wet — as it well might in mid-winter — will waving a flag really energetically generate enough heat to keep one warm? Who knows.