The other day a flag was lying on the sidewalk of the main street of the town where the initiator of the neutral-inclusive Norm lived. So many pedestrians had trodden on it with dirty shoes, some of them fouled with dogs' excrement, that it had become impossible to see what kind of flag it was. The only thing you could make up about it was that it had been black and white originally. Most people ignored the flag completely and just walked on; a few spat on it; and a few looked at it briefly, were surprised to find an unfamiliar flag on the sidewalk, and then walked on as well.

The flag might have been lying there for two days or so when someone dressed in simple, partially, perhaps, a little bit shabby, clothes walked by. It seemed as if this person recognized the flag from a long distance already. 'E immediately walked, almost ran, towards it and picked it up at a spot which was still relatively clean. 'E looked around 'im and saw a small water faucet at the entrance of a parkette. 'E went to the faucet and started to wash the coarsest dirt off the flag. Soon, however, 'e was joined by a roller-skater who had found the washer's behavior rather odd and who wanted to know why 'e was taking all the trouble and risk of picking up such a piece of dirty cotton with lots of germs on it. "Hey!" the obtrusive fellow said, "Are you crazy or something? Who cares about a stained cloth?"

Altho these two questions were clear enough, the washer did not answer them and kept on pouring water over the flag, so that at least the worst of the smut would disappear. While doing this the pattern on the flag became visible bit by bit. It seemed to be whiter in the middle, with some kind of a tilted cross, and blacker at the far left and far right. "Hey!" the obtrusive fellow said again, "Why all this fuss about a dirty piece of cotton. Are you a tramp or something?" And, again, the washer did not answer and kept on pouring water over the flag, so that still more of the smut would disappear, and still more of the pattern on the flag would become visible. But the skater could not wait any longer, 'er patience was up and with a sudden jerk 'e pulled the flag from the washer's hands and sped away with it. The washer had not expected such a violent reaction and was too perplexed to even follow the thief (for a thief 'e was). "Let 'im go", the washer thought to 'imself, "'e only took a worthless, dirty and wet piece of cotton away from me".

The next day the same person was back on the same sidewalk in the same street. This time 'e was not taken by surprise when 'e saw something on the pavement in the distance that looked like a once black-and-white flag. It was lying half in the gutter, had suffered fewer steps but now more wheels of bikes and some cars driving over it. And yet, it was still cleaner than when 'e had found it the first time. Being not too far away from the parkette 'e walked down to the same water faucet to continue the cleaning which had so abruptly been ended the day before. First 'e would have to get rid of the newly accumulated dirt, and then 'e would go on with the smut which had been on the cloth for several more days. Deep in thought 'e was when interrupted by someone shouting from afar: "Hey, you!". The washer looked up and saw the aggressive skater of the day before. "Hey, you," 'e thought, "aren't you the person who stole this flag from me yesterday?" While 'e continued pouring water over the flag it appeared as if the black form on it consisted of two arrows, one pointing from the left to the center and the other pointing from the right.

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64.NLY-NEM