"A moth-eaten rag on a worm-eaten pole,
It does not seem likely to stir a man's soul,
'Tis the deeds that were done 'neath the moth eaten rag,
When the pole was staff, and the rag was a flag."
At some point in the dim dark history of man a person stood on a battlefield and thought "I need a better way to communicate when we fight. My tribe needs to be able to see where I am. It needs to be light, bright and easy to see. I need to be able to distinguish my tribe from the other tribe. If we all paint our faces blue we know who our friends are and who our enemies are when the dust starts to fly. "
In the Roman Empire it was called the Signa Militaria. Most of us would be familiar with the Golden Eagle of the Legions - although it wasn't always an eagle and it wasn't always gold.
The mongolian hordes of Ghengis Khan looked to a Black Horsehair Tugh in wartime. The Great Khan's personal black Tugh survived in a monastery until the late 1930's when it disappeared in the destruction of the monasteries. Ghenghis Khan's Tugh was the shrine of his soul - the soul of a great man and by extension the soul of a great culture, empire and legacy. When you see a Tugh it just looks like a wad of horsehair on the top of a stick - nothing special right? Just another moth eaten rag really - smelling of horsehair.
Try and take one from a Mongolian.
Although we no longer take our Colours, Guidons, drums and Pennants into combat they are still the soul of our fighting forces. We honour our Colours, drums and guns because they are the legacy of everything we are as warriors. Our Colours are the focal points for the heart and soul of a unit. When we parade or troop our Colours we are reminded of the reasons we enlisted. We are reminded of the deeds of all those who served, lived and died before us. We are reminded of where we come from and what is expected of us.
Our Colours hold us together and remind us who we are.
Our Colours are also a public declaration to others of who came before us, where we come from and what we believe in. Our Colours keep us connected to our community.
At WithYouWithMe we 're more of a horde than a legion. Our leaders have autonomy on the battlefield. We move fast, strike hard, sleep in the saddle and live off the land. We shoot backwards over the back end of a galloping horse so we can keep laying down fire as we circle around for the next opportunity target. We don't need to be told which target to engage next. We improvise, we adapt, we achieve, we over extend for impact - and we watch each other's backs.
We're civilians now so we aren't allowed a Regimental Colour any more.
These days we wear our warrior colours on a T - shirt. Green, white and black for camouflage. Green for growing and building, white for purity and black because it is slimming for flabby IT types. Or maybe black is the colour that reminds us why the company was born. Red for creative fire, Blue for the ebb and flow of the translator.
You might think it's just a cheap T shirt.
We know better.