Thought for the day, 9 September 2022

Today's involved feelings, perhaps unexpectedly, and I've been trying to boil them down.

I don't think she was lazy. Turning up to events with a smile, connecting and sharing words and emotions for twelve hours or more in a day - well, without a doubt, that is work. Whether it's work with a social value is a different question.

I accept that she served. I wouldn't always agree with her idea of service - but then again, not everyone would agree with mine.

I can't turn away from the misadventures of her empire during her reign - from its torture, in concentration camps, of Kenyans; to its meddling in the overthrow of an Australian Prime Minister. She represented a project that stole the reo from the tongues of children. No one should turn away.

But I have to take on board the reflections of some indigenous commentators, who say that for all there is a gross imbalance of power, and a legacy of exploitation, there was still a pact - and the person who embodied it deserves our respect.

I don't accept that other pact we've made: that because she and her family live off the public purse, every aspect of their lives is fodder for tabloids; for a voyeuristic cruelty that dehumanises all of us. That said, I still read about them in the women's mags at the hairdresser's. And so I don't laugh at the emotional attachment some people feel, even if I don't entirely get it.

I note that she lived one hell of a life, all 96 years; and your chances of doing that are so much better the more money you have.

I concede the bitchin colours of her outfits, and if I can rock lime green in fifty years' time, you'll be hearing from me.

And so I think I've boiled it down. On one hand, we all live within our certain set of circumstances. On the other, if those circumstances are unfair, we've got a responsibility to challenge them. The more resources you've got, the better your ability - the greater your responsibility - to challenge.

Notwithstanding, in that space between one hand and the other, most of us try to live our lives, awkwardly but as purposefully as we can. And she could have done worse.

God save the lot of us. Some need it more than others: it's the nature of this arbitrary world.

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