The Eagle

While spending some time in Tulum, Mexico, I noticed this Mexican flag.

The flag was draped on a wall, near a cenot’e, where people swim in a pool of sparkling clear water that is fed by an underground stream. Gazing at the flag, I was fascinated with the eagle, clutching a snake. As an American, I can relate. Our national symbol is also an eagle. My curiosity about the image widened into a search for eagle references in my favorite book for research, that ancient collection of scripture that we call the Bible. I noticed, in the 30th proverb of the wise king Solomon, that he was fascinated by “the way of an eagle in sky, navigating the high winds in order to scope out the terrain below.” The eagle glides on the high winds, soaring and sweeping, all the while keeping his eyes on the ground below, in search of some animal that he may swoop down on, for a meal. Yes, Virginia, our national symbol is a predator. Read ‘em and weep, y’all, but remember this: our great nation has enacted a history of revolution based upon the freedom of all men. Ultimately, we had to fight a terrible civil war in order to assure the freedom and dignity of all people.

Today, visiting here in Mexico, seeing the eagle on the Mexican flag, there is no doubt that the Mexican people have had their share of revolution against their mother country, Spain. They liberated themselves from Spain in 1810. Their flag symbol presents an eagle perched on a cactus while devouring a serpent. When I viewed their flag today, I saw the determination of the Mexican people to free themselves from Spanish hegemony, just as we Americans freed ourselves from British colonialism. (For all ye Brits out there. . . no offense. . . we still love you blokes.) So we see that the Mexican republic presented the eagle on the their flag as a symbol of their determination to overpower the Spanish empire that had strived to keep them in colonial bondage. In the same way, our American republic presents the eagle as a symbol of our original determination to acquire independence from Britain. And that has worked out quite well for everybody, including the Brits who did just fine after we shook their snaky colonial hegemony off of us, like an eagle overpowering a snake. Glass half-Full