Reflections on Queen Elizabeth II

You can be famous these days…by being famous. No talent or accomplishments necessary.

Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away this morning at 96, was the most well-known woman in the world, for how she handled the mantle she inherited.

You don’t have to do anything (but be in the line of succession) to become Queen, but it’s what she DID do, and how, that has people mourning her and sensing that we are watching the end of an era here today.

She learned at her father’s side (King George VI, depicted in the recent movie “The King’s Speech”) what a modern monarch needed to do. The operative word was not “power”, or “privilege”, but “responsibility”

From her first broadcast words to her subjects, in 1952, she pledged her “life, be it long or short” to the service of her people.

“Her people” changed and her empire shrank, and her family roiled and rebelled, but she…stayed Elizabeth. By the end, the polls indicated deep, multi-generational respect for her, even from people unsure about whether they need a royal ruler going forward. Nevertheless, they repected her.

Even her marriage to Prince Philip, who she lost last year, was a monument to respect for marriage and setting an example. By all accounts, it was not always a happy union, but she refused to let it fail. She lived her faith and kept her word.

Interesting that many humble, elected “public servants” carry on like kings and queens, but this actual queen was a public servant.