so, when I got up this morning, I couldn't resist reaching for the remote...to catch whatever part of the Queen's funeral was broadcasting...it is still going on as I write...I have had such mixed feelings about her death...or, let me correct myself, the media circus that has surrounded it...when she died I did feel a bit sad...and a bit in awe of the scope of history she lived through...had to carry herself through...wearing that crown and all it signifies...she always did so with grace...and perhaps unseen to most of us...at great personal sacrifice...then her death became an unending media loop...of course in England...but also here in the good ole USA...and I had to laugh inside...didn't we fight a little war in 1776 so we would not have to care about any of this?...and we certainly do not feel it like our friends across the pond...and in countries of the commonwealth across the globe...but we want to...our democracy is ailing right now...not growing pains...more like growing apart at the seams pains...who knows where we will be 70 years from now...maybe we wistfully wish there was some symbol like Queen Elizabeth II...a symbol living and breathing on the moors with corgis...smiling and waving and while not determining lawful things in life...reminding us of the continuity of a country...how the torch...or crown is literally passed down...generation to generation...the vitriol left to the halls of Parliament...and so I do sigh at her death...and marvel at the length of her reign...think about other dynamic Queens in England's history...Victoria...and way back to Elizabeth I, who was not supposed to live, let alone reign over 44 years...and for all that you really have to bow...or curtsy...or just nod and say...long live the Queen...
