HERMAN GOODDEN
  • BLOG
  • Home
  • BOOKS
  • PLAYS
  • FEATURES
  • JOURNALISM
    • COLUMNS
    • INTERVIEWS
  • COMMERCE

A Long and Benevolent Reign

16/9/2022

5 Comments

 
Picture
LONDON, ONTARIO – I don’t expect she remembered me from that sunny July afternoon in 1959 when my parents herded their four boys, all decked out in our Sunday best, onto the track-side loading dock of Canada Packers; a perfect royalty-viewing perch that our meat salesman father secured for us across from the old London Arena and not even two blocks west of the Canadian National Railway station. We waved to our yellow-dressed Queen (or was it pink?) and the Duke of Edinburgh who waved right back at us from their platform on the very last car of a train that was slowly pulling out of London en route to points west.

“I guess she’s off to Windsor for a family reunion,” my dad joked as the train rolled beyond our horizon and we turned back to behold one another again. My father’s remark flew over my head and had to be explained to me later. I could tell by the quiet chill in the air that my mother thought it was too disrespectful to laugh at. But if I didn’t yet know Queen Elizabeth’s last name, I did know that her reign began in 1952, just like I did. And, as is the way with seven year-olds (and, for that matter, seventy year-olds as well) I’ve always sort of cherished this chronological coincidence linking her reign and my life.

I mustn’t give the impression that Queen Elizabeth (1926–2022) was a major figure in my life. But my appreciation of her deepened considerably when I got married and came to understand how much she meant to my Scottish-born mother-in-law who was an even longer-lived near-contemporary of her monarch. I don’t think I’ve missed more than a handful of the Queen’s televised Christmas messages since getting married in 1977 and if ever I was stuck for a present to get Sheila Gerard Bentley Jarvis (nee Cranch) (1921–2019) another royal bio or picture book would fit the bill quite nicely.

Hearing those broadcasts, dipping into those books, I would often find myself humming that refrain of Paul McCartney’s which is often construed as a putdown – “Her Majesty’s a pretty nice girl but she doesn’t have a lot to say” – but is actually, I have come to think, an admittedly comic commendation of the royal ideal. A country or a commonwealth does not want a symbolic figurehead who is going to harangue her subjects with partisan opinions or share her latest brainstorm about how to fix global warming or gross them out with the banal or sordid details of her private life. Dignity and discretion are key. And these Elizabeth II maintained throughout her long life.

As Roger Scruton put it in a wise essay from 1991 entitled, A Focus of Loyalty Higher than the State, in modern times an effective monarch “occupies a place in the heart of the ordinary citizen while remaining above and beyond the turmoil of politics; a court of appeal to which every faction, every ethnic group and every religious confession may address itself.”

This week I’ve spoken with a few people who never considered themselves monarchists but were nonetheless affected, and even shaken a little, by the death of a ninety-six year-old woman whom they at best dismissed and at worst reviled. I only hope that when her late majesty is laid to rest, these people don’t toss off the opportunity which Queen Elizabeth’s death provided to reconsider any other less-than worthy attitudes and assumptions they may be harboring.

Of course the Queen’s more committed detractors have been grousing all week about the near-global media focus on the elaborately detailed processions and memorial tributes leading up to Monday’s funeral. In the British epicentre of this mourning, sporting and entertainment events have had to be rescheduled and some business routines, medical appointments, travel plans and, in some neighbourhoods, even freedom of movement, have all been disrupted. Here in Canada, Monday will be a holiday on the east and west coasts and a more unofficial day of mourning everywhere else . . . unless, of course, you’re in the civil service; they’ll all get the day off with pay.
Picture
The Queen at Breakfast: Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, 1965. Courtesy of the Royal Collection Trust
I’m sure the inconvenience has been exasperating for some people. But death always has been the great disruptor of routines. It happens when it happens, whether you’re ready to conveniently accommodate it or not. When a family or a close knit community is hit by it, you clear the decks of everything else and commit yourself to a week of mourning and paying homage and saying goodbye. I could just be a running dog lackey of the imperial order but it doesn’t strike me as particularly oppressive if once every seventy years or so – if you’re lucky and live in a great civilization with deep roots and a sense of history – you pause to pay tribute to a benevolent sovereign who has been discreetly advising your leaders for the entirety of her reign.

I happened to be the second reader at mass last Sunday at St. Peter’s Cathedral, which meant that I also led the congregation in the Prayers of the Faithful which culminate each week with a petition for the repose of the souls of the recently deceased. And there was Queen Elizabeth’s name in among the list of local parishioners who’d died. She was, of course, the head of the Church of England but she was equally the queen of Canadian Catholics and was probably the only name in that solemn list who everybody in our congregation knew . . . and in a somewhat sentimental way perhaps, loved. Walking back to my pew after the reading, I thought again about my father’s sixty-three year-old joke and recognized its deeper truth. Whether she was visiting London or Windsor or Medicine Hat, this ever-waving queen who also perfected the art of the more close and personal walkabout, did in a way preside at an awful lot of family reunions.
5 Comments
SUE CASSAN
16/9/2022 01:35:02 pm

Odd how the life of Queen Elizabeth feels entwined with personal history. You for having been born in the year of her coronation, me for Elizabeth providing early vivid memories of the celebrations which remain with me still. And realizing now, that it is no longer God Save the Queen, but the King. That will be strange!

Reply
Barry Allan Wells
16/9/2022 03:12:27 pm

I've always been a bit of a monarchist as well, given how well Queen Elizabeth II performed a demanding job she never really expected nor wanted, albeit in the absolute lap of luxury, for so many decades.

But I can also see why some ridicule the British monarchy as an elite, outdated institution from a distant era of colonialism and exploitation, where classes of people were more clearly defined.

The truth is we remain a society of unwarranted hero worship, where famous entertainers and other celebrities are perceived as demi-gods walking among us.

While Elvis Presley ("The King") turned to a plethora of drugs to deal with the unreality of hero worship, at least Queen Elizabeth steered clear of such nonsense, remaining steadfast and clear-eyed in her diplomatic service throughout her so-called reign.

I often cast a jaundiced eye whenever people mourn the death of famous people, individuals they've never even met, just seen on TV.

Be thankful you're just an ordinary person who can walk down the street without fanfare, enjoying life in joyful anonymity.

It's dangerous to be famous, as the lives of Lincoln, JFK, RFK, MLK and Elvis clearly attest.

As for King Charles III, the former Prince of Wales, it's apparent he's a bit of a spoiled brat turned adult: Also known as a bit of a royal shithead.

Reply
Jim Ross
17/9/2022 06:08:29 pm

Was it 1959 when my dad told me that we were fortunate to live in Canada? "We have a monarch" he said, "and even the police have to salute her!"

My father could not have imagined our prime minister - a clever fellow who fancies himself above an honest police officer. I have never heard a rumor of Justin honoring anything greater than his own idea of himself. And look at the chaos he has mothered.

Reply
Max Lucchesi
19/9/2022 11:56:19 am

Interesting replies to your essay, Herman. Princess Elizabeth became Queen in 1952 when her father died but her coronation with it's panoply happened in 1953. Belsize Road, a 1000 + metre long street connecting Kilburn High Road to Swiss Cottage was draped in red white and blue bunting for the event. We had a television, a rarity in those days so we invited our neighbours to view the event live. I was 11 at the time. London's East end was still pitted with bomb sites, most things were still rationed. But we had a beautiful young queen with a radiant smile. Whose father at the start of the war had refused the safety of Canada for himself and his family. His wife said. 'The children will not leave without me. I will not leave without the king. The king will never leave". Who refused to desert London for Windsor at the height of the blitz. Again it was left to her mother to observe after Buckingham Palace was bombed. "Now I can look the East End in the eye".
Belsize Road pooled it's ration cards, closed the street and threw a gigantic street party. Tables, laden with cakes, sweets sandwiches and bottles of pop. Magically oranges and bananas, a luxury to us children appeared. We were allowed a choice of one or other. Many of the kids had never seen a banana.
England, especially London, respected her father and loved her mother. She inherited both feelings from a grateful populace, which, during her 70 years of service and duty became a willingly given devotion. She reigned over decades of cataclysmic social, political and environmental changes, always there with the right questions, advice and actions, seldom missing a beat. Yet for all that she could still share a sandwich with Paddington Bear.
I as a follower of National Hunt Racing was fascinated when occasionally her conversations with trainers in various race course paddocks were overheard reciting from memory sire and dam of every classic 3 year old on training.
Charles III replying to a silly questions about his various hobby horses, replied tersely, "I am not stupid. I know the limitations of a constitutional monarch." But aptly (at least to me) reminding us that 50 years ago he was considered a loonie tree-hugger for extolling the virtues of sustainable organic farming and the dangers of feeding cattle, pigs and poultry with hormones and antibiotics.

Reply
Bill Myles
27/9/2022 02:54:16 am

Back when long hair often (and in this case did) cause US border customs to detain, search etc., I was left bored to death in a room for an hour, with the face of Richard Nixon (then preident) staring at me. I felt like screaming "In Canada we have a (powerless?) queen to idolize instead of the latest crooked politician who comes to power".
Therein lies my conundrum: My brain says yes to a state figurehead without political clout. If one must see up to something above oneself, better Lizzzie or Karl Gustav (Swedish king).
My heart, on the other hand (ventricle?) and my socialist tendencies say that no man/woman/in-between, is created better than another. "A man´s a man for `a´that" (Rabbie Burns). My brain is still leading, but we´ll have to see how not-so-bonnie Prince Charlie copes.
I´m a model `53 and have always taken some pride in being born the year of the coronation. I still have the complete set of British coronation coins, given as a christening present by my mum? Elisabeth´s always been my queen, even before I had to swear allegiance on becoming Canadian. This they did not if I recall correctly, require me to do at birth in Scotland!
Her majesty is/was a pretty nice girl, and I don´t have a lot (more) to say. Let her through dem pearly gates!

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    HERMANEUTICS
    If you would like to contribute to the ongoing operations of Hermaneutics, there are now a few options available.
    support
    Picture

    THE AQUINAS LECTURE
    G.K. CHESTERTON AND THE GIFT OF GRATITUDE
    HEAR THE LECTURE ON G.K. CHESTERTON

    ALL LIFE IS A GIFT :

    THE IMPORTANCE OF TRADITION :

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018

    Categories

    All
    Book Reviews

    RSS Feed

© 1975 - 2023 HERMAN GOODDEN  All Rights Reserved
  • BLOG
  • Home
  • BOOKS
  • PLAYS
  • FEATURES
  • JOURNALISM
    • COLUMNS
    • INTERVIEWS
  • COMMERCE