October 11. Day 285. Tie a yellow ribbon round the ole oak tree

Okay, an oak tree this is not but it is a yellow ribbon, two actually, one with pretty little white dots. It's an itsy bitsy, tiny weeny yellow polka dot ribbon as it happens.
Doubtless these yellow ribbons have a deeply symbolic meaning to someone but as a person aimlessly walking along the riverbank at West End it is impossible to know exactly what.
Yellow ribbon campaigns are, for some reason, the domain of so many causes that in a way the yellow ribbon has come to represent nothing.
The original oak tree yellow ribbon was about remembering your sweetheart off fighting in the cavalry. But yellow ribbons have also been used to raise awareness about suicide prevention, road safety, the rural fire brigade and even women supporting Schapelle Corby.
I guess the thing about yellow is that it stands out and is hard to miss. But seeing it and taking notice and two very different things.
It's good to make a bold statement but pointless unless people know what it is you are proclaiming.
In every one of the campaigns, the yellow ribbon is designed to keep the cause in the public domain, to make us remember.
But for me all I know is that there is a dead looking tree somewhere at West End that has been decorated with a pretty yellow bow. If that's the take home message well mission accomplished.
I suspect it isn't. Someone's gone out on a limb for nothing.