The Vision of Virtue
Being born with privilege, you are instantly judged as someone who is “spoon fed”, “born with a silver spoon in their mouth”, “entitled”, “spoilt” or 100 other labels.
What about if that “privileged” person took ownership and got up, showed up and owed it every day for 70 years?
Then you would know our queen who sadly passed away on Thursday, September 8th 2022.
Our Sovereign country of the UK is in mourning.
I know I’m not alone in thinking, “maybe mourning is not the most appropriate thing to do” I’m not being controversial, hear me out, please.
Death is inevitable and always sad, but in this instance why abide by the feelings “mourning” subscribes us to? Feelings that are described as synonyms such as sadness, sorrowing, anguishing and suffering, let's put them facing an antonym mirror and what you will find are other more appropriate feelings such as Joying, cheering, reassuring, solacing and rejoicing. Connect those words and to find they all belong to acts of celebration. If there is one life that requires celebration after their passing, is the life of Queen Elizabeth. A celebration of an extraordinary life.
Newspapers, Television channels, and Social Media feeds have all been dominated by the passing of this exceptional human, and I am not there to compete with the mainstream media or highly professional journalists. I (can confidently say), like the majority in the UK, we haven't known another leader of the Monarchy, that we know as, The Royal Family.
I’ve never met her, not even close, yet I share a loss with the nation that leaves me reflecting and absorbing a life well lived (through my lens) and optimising an opportunity to share my thoughts on this “free speech” platform.
I don’t know about you, but my comparison radar is always activated to make me a better human. Yes, I compare myself to others and that, I know, is a wasted exercise, but hear me out. The comparison is a requirement for me to see how I can improve as a human.
To be a good human is to work for the common good. The definitions of “the common good” are many, but relative to this nugget, working for the common good is to be of service and to my mind, there has been no one in the public eye that has upheld this act more than our late great Queen.
Am I comparing myself to the Queen? “Yes”. In what way? I think back at 25/26 years of age and there were episodes of my life I reflect and cringe upon for the absolute immature arse (“ass” if you’re American, “Golon” if you’re Greek) of a human I was. Imagine if the queen did that, where would we be as a nation? This lady had to grow up real quick and make the kind of decisions I would have been pretty useless to make because they were life dependent. Not MY life dependent but OTHER people’s life dependent.
She said it best in 1947 on April 21st, her 21st Birthday, “I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.”
This was from her earliest public address that she made whilst on a family holiday in South Africa as she dedicated her life to the service of the Commonwealth.
Profoundly on June 2nd, the day of her coronation in 1953 at the age of 27, she stood in London’s Westminster Abbey and declared to the world (as it was televised across the globe), “Although my experience is so short and my task so new, I have in my parents and grandparents an example which I can follow with certainty and with confidence,”
Fast forward to the Queens Platinum Jubilee in February 2022 she echoed what she said in 1947 “As we mark this anniversary, it gives me pleasure to renew to you the pledge I gave in 1947 that my life will always be devoted to your service”.
“I continue to be inspired by the goodwill shown to me, and hope that the coming days will provide an opportunity to reflect on all that has been achieved during the last seventy years”
What you’ve just read is the epitome of humility and awareness with abundant gratitude. For me, it resonates of a personal development journey that requires reflection and a comparison, of sorts.
Those quotes of wisdom within her speeches will echo in eternity, embody the virtues that were our Queen — Courage, Temperance, Justice and Wisdom.
Everything that feeds from those virtues are the operating systems to be good humans, and like the Queen, it is our obligation to be obedient to her actions that served nations so that we too can serve goodness in our worlds.
Be a leader. Be integral. Be resilient. Be graceful. Be grateful. Be compassionate. Be empathetic. Be faithful. Be warm and be POWERFUL…and always be kinder than you think necessary.
