Queen Elizabeth II: A perfect life, perfectly lived!
If ever a life was truly blessed, it was surely Queen Elizabeth II’s. What more could one ask for?
If at all a perfect life is possible, Queen Elizabeth II certainly lived it, wouldn’t you agree? If you were to pray for the best in life, what would you ask for? Long and healthy life. A family that respects and loves you. Power power. wealth No unpleasant sorrows or scandals that you will not be able to handle.
Well, God gave him all that and more!
To be a queen for 70 years! To live for 96 years! Be loved and respected and seen by millions! Wear the best clothes and jewelry to your heart’s content! Living as many years as humanly possible with a loving husband. Being surrounded by your children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. To travel the world and be introduced to diverse lives and cultures… and above all to be so loved and respected all over the world that you are beyond reproach or criticism!
And besides, Queen Elizabeth was also blessed with a quality that elevates life a notch above the rest – a sense of humor. They say that the queen was almost always happy. How great! As New Yorker Anthony Lane wrote, trying to understand the secret of the Queen’s success, “You don’t get through seventy years on your best behavior, on the throne, without a sense of humor; indeed, that might be a thing.” That keeps you going.”
Indeed, the Queen had the best life anyone could hope for. As such, his death is not so much something to be mourned by Britain, as it is an end to the constant sense of stability and comfort that his unwavering presence inspired. The longest-reigning monarch of the British Empire, Queen Elizabeth II became Britain’s most enduring symbol of constancy and public duty, a trait admired even by her harshest critics. He is the only monarch that the majority of English people have known since birth.
Historian Simon talks in Schema. The New Yorker One of the Queen’s worst critics in the 1960s was Lord Altrincham (John Greig, who was punched in the face for criticizing the Queen in 1957) and even later described her as “authentically a thoroughly decent person” said. She was a figure of royalty and in many ways beyond criticism. The rest of the Royals, now led by the new King Charles III, are all human – as susceptible to questions, doubts and explanations as anyone else. From the sheer number of her years and the mysticism and splendor that surrounded her, the queen was almost beyond human.
The mystical, magical, esoteric and morally idealistic qualities that Queen Elizabeth II exemplified despite her amazing communication and interaction with the common people are now a thing of the past – gone with her forever. In an age of disbelief, fake news, mistrust and a culture of cancellation, perhaps this is what is to be mourned – the end of an era of strong faith, belief in an institution and an individual that symbolizes it. As one mourner outside Buckingham Palace said, pointing to his young daughter, “She will never see the Queen reign again in her lifetime.” In fact, the next three are set to become sovereign kings!
She knew well when to be in the public eye and connect with her subjects and when to slip quietly behind her gilded veil – keenly aware of the balance she maintained between the extremes of public pageantry and royal mystery. Need to keep – a balance that alone maintains. Current modern royalty.
The English understand very well what they have lost with the death of Queen Elizabeth. The comfort and protection of a constant presence throughout his life, a king who held royal standards high and valued maintaining tradition while making room for the change that was inevitable. Throughout his life he maintained in public the irony that the British consider so important, although his humor is often reported. As one mourner said, “You were a constant in all our lives.” Another was quoted as saying, “You were an unparalleled beacon of duty, faith, perseverance, humility, humanity and British values.”
The Queen’s death was certainly expected. It was no shock. It was only a matter of time. And given the beauty of his glorious life, his death is no tragedy. The seamless passing of the baton, the transfer of kingship from mother to son that brings grief as well as power and glory, is the way of the British monarchy. Nothing breaks royal continuity… as ‘God Save the King’ easily replaces ‘God Save the Queen’.
Will the Queen’s Kingdom survive? It remains to be seen how the British will relate to their new king, and how willing Charles III, the oldest monarch to take the British throne at 73, is to mold himself into the mold of his wise, domineering mother.
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Disclaimer
The views expressed above are the author’s own.
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