Not long after
my mother passed away, I discovered a cache of old newspapers and magazines that
she and my father had collected and saved. Among them was a souvenir program
that had been printed for the coronation of King George VI—the father of our
present Queen Elizabeth II.
I remember how
thrilled I was to find these in 1976. Our parents raised us to think of
ourselves as British subjects, which in fact we were back then. I suppose you
could have called my parents monarchists, and been quite accurate.
Sadly, when we
suffered a house fire in 1985, all those lovely pieces of history went up in
flames.
My beloved and I
are very much fans of the Royal Family, and consider ourselves monarchists to
this day. Queen Elizabeth II is in fact the "Queen of Canada", and David
and I consider her our Queen.
Each Christmas,
the Queen gives a televised `message' and that message has been a part of my
Christmas tradition all of my life. Canada does have a Prime Minister, who is
the head of government, but our head of state is the Queen, represented
day-by-day in Canada by "vice-regent", the Governor-General.
The two of us
have been paying avid attention this last week especially, as the celebration of
the Queen's Diamond Jubilee has been taking place here, and in England. We have
been very conscious of the fact that we are living through the making of
history. There have only been two diamond Jubilees for the British Crown, and
both have been achieved Queen Regents. The other one, of course, was attained by
Queen Victoria.
The Jubilee is
the celebration of the Queen's 60 years of service. Notice I said service, and
not reign. The word `reign' brings to mind images of power, opulence,
self-indulgence—words that simply don't fit our Queen at all. She is the
embodiment of the word `service'.
Her Majesty has
been known in the past to walk through the Palace in the evenings, turning off
lights that don't need to be on. She has put off renovations to the various
properties and has ordered a scaling back of expenses for state dinners and
balls (a lot of which she finances herself) to reflect the times. She could
afford to spare no expense, but is sensitive that her people are going through
difficult economic hardship. Ever frugal, she has been even more so in the last
several years.
During the
Second World War she trained as an ambulance driver and mechanic. When she
turned 21, the then Princess Elizabeth gave a radio-address in which she pledged
to dedicate her "whole life, be it long or short" to the service of her
country, and the Commonwealth.
Over the years
when I would hear different news commentators wondering aloud if the Queen would
"retire", I would shake my head because of course, she will never retire. She
will be Queen for the whole of her life, period.
These special
celebrations this past weekend are celebrations that will likely never occur
again. The two next in line for the Crown—Prince Charles and then Prince
William—will probably not attain 60 years on the throne, because they will be so
much older at the time of their coronations than Elizabeth was.
And who knows
what the future holds for the institution itself? At the moment, the Queen
enjoys an 80 per cent approval rating. Yet the concept of having a King or Queen
does seem to some people to be archaic. Monarchies can be considered
institutions of the past.
In a hundred
years, they may not even exist.
Old fashioned
monarchies might be, but I can tell you that I, for one, have
greater faith in Queen Elizabeth to put first the interests and well being of
her people, than I do in our Prime Minister—or any elected politician, for that
matter. There is not a single occasion that I can recall, where she has done
anything that could be considered even the slightest bit self-aggrandizing.
Politicians by
their very nature have extremely healthy egos. They seek office, and who
among them does so for purely altruistic reasons? I cannot name a
one.
Our Queen has
been on the job without a vacation from her duties for 60 years. She has been
there, through good times and bad times, ever dutiful, unwavering, and solid. At
86 years of age, she continues to inspire me.
God Save the
Queen!
Love,
The only dream I've ever had was to be a published author. It was a dream formed in childhood, and held on to through the business of growing up. Life intruded, as life does, and my dream was put on hold. But now, through hard work, faith, and luck dream has evolved into reality.
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