Observation of Stripes

Since I started to read this book, I actually pay much more attention to stripes. I start to look at my surrounding for the use of stripes. I looked at my friends who wore stripes shirts. I also noticed that there are so many countries besides United States that use stripes for their flags, including my country Indonesia. Most of them are horizontal with really eye catching pure colors. There are always specific reasons behind the chosen stripes' design and their colors, but I guess the main reason is to make the people of their nation aware of their own flag as well as for other nations to be easily recognized others' flag. Another thing that really attracts me is the diagonal stripe.

Few days ago, I walked at the mission district and I looked at something that is really interesting, it was a revolving barber's pole. As soon as I went home, I tried to figure out the real meaning behind those stripes. And I think I want to share it with you guys. Back to the middle ages era, barbers was not solely cutting hair, but they were also surgeons. The red and white stripes wrapped around the pole signify the blood bandages, while the pole itself represent the pole that was gripped by the patient during the surgery in order to enhance blood flow. While the blue is not the original part of the pole, it was added in America merely as a symbol of patriotism.