Red and White package

A few weeks ago, on my way to work, I walked out of my house carrying a small red and white package. My neighbor across the street walked out of his house at almost the same time, also carrying a small red and white package in his hands. We walked toward the street, directly toward each other. For a split second, I thought we were doing the same thing - putting a recently watched Netflix movie in the mailbox.

But my neighbor stopped well short of his mailbox, at the small flagpole in his front yard. As he does every morning, he unfurled and raised his American flag.