Thank you, appleman.
i want to add your post here, it reflects my experiences with life+death, rambling through ancestries+geneaologies.
a few forum members have found ancestry in Charlemagne (ohio jones, Joy, at least one more, and myself) .. there are articles about how he had wives and concubines, he left quite a DNA legacy. (If articles are correct, it’s likely many or most on this forum could be traced back to Charlemagne!) Cousins!
The onset of DNA has deeply affected how “we all” think of ancestry; for example, even before DNA, the discovery that men determine the sex of their children, also made a big difference in perceptions of how that works. In history, wives were held responsible for producing male heirs, if they didn’t, they could be abandoned, divorced, executed .. science changes things!
(Unfortunately, contemporary science allows sex-selection abortions, reported to be a thriving business in some settings.)
appleman2006 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 6:34 pm
Recently my son-in-law who love's researching things like this discovered that I am 15th cousin to the now late Queen Elizabeth.
And no I did not get a big head over the knowledge especially since my line came down through what was very likely an older illegitimate half-sister to the line that the Queen descended from.
There are two points that this discovery made more clear to me.
First is the fact that as a society we really are more closely related to each other than we often are willing to acknowledge.
Once you go back 20 generations are more you are actually often related to 10's of millions of people and from there on each generation can more than double that. The point being that if you think you are anyone special because of bloodlines and such think again.
Secondly as it relates to the queen and as has been stated by others on here she certainly did not choose this position and I suspect often wondered why it had to be her. I suspect there were many times where the easier thing to do would have been to just quit and live out her life in obscurity. We can argue all day as to whether or not that might have been the better thing for her to do. Many people think so.
But after watching the events of the last week or so I am not so sure.
It seems to me that she lived a life of service and in some ways sacrificially to an extent most of us would know nothing about.
You could argue that she was well paid for it but over the years in watching her life I have decided there is not enough money or prestige in the world for me to take on that job even if it was offered to me. And while she made many mistakes
I am sure I think I would have made more.
I know Americans like to laugh at the role the monarchy plays as being of so symbolic nature as to be less than worthless.
But as I watch the messiness of politics I am more convinced all the time that having someone in their role plays an essential part if for no other reason in that it symbolically at least sets an example of what servant-hood leadership really should be about.
And in a sense it is a position that transcends the political divisiveness and self-serving and desire to hang on to power at all costs.
I thought the key speaker at the funeral today made good use of his opportunity as he spoke so some 100 heads of state in calling them to a sense of service rather than power seeking and using the Queen's life as an example.
The Queen has now met her maker and I am sure she will be judged justly by him as we all will be. I leave that to him.
Again some of you may laugh at those of us in the commonwealth who have spent a lifetime of fascination with the royal family.
I especially enjoyed Piers Morgan's response to a rather arrogant American he was interviewing who was almost scoffing at the way Brits were paying homage to the Queen. Piers responded that it seems that all people tend to need someone they can look up to. He said "We have the Royal family. You have the Kardashians."
Just before the coffin was lowered into the crypt today I watched a ceremony that I have obviously never seen before in my almost 60 years where the crown and the royal scepter representing power were taken off the casket and placed on the altar. We were told that it was signifying that in death she was recognizing that everything she had was bestowed upon her by God and that she was again symbolically placing them back on the alter recognizing it was not hers to keep. She was going to face her maker and give an account of the stewardship of what she had been given.
All I can say is that while it might be easy to say I would have done better in her shoes it is hard for me to believe that myself.
And so again I leave her to God the one who sets up Kings and brings them back down.
And I continue to fear that God and try my best to honour the kings he sets up. Sometimes that is pretty easy. Other times not so much.
May God truly save the King and may he reign wisely and righteously.
That is my prayer.
The current status of England’s monarchy, that it is not allowed to be political, is its great advantage.
This allows the freedom to be role models, and for others to have them as role models.
For decades, my family had annual reunions, and large gatherings for weddings and funerals ..
one hard rule was “no politics allowed.”
i’ve long guessed this was a result of the U.S. Civil War, my elders (still) carried the grief of division and loss that horrible time represented. Nearly all those elders are gone now.
The pandemic probably was the final blow to these reunions. History is forgotten.
In the U.S., hollywood has too much replaced families, teachers, role models; in the least, ‘way too much influence without much to offset. England’s royals are not flawless, for sure! Plenty of palace intrigue.
i agree with you. “living that royal life” - for life, would be a burden hard to imagine.
i pray they remain aloof from politics. and hollywood. appreciation for a servant’s heart would be sacrificed.
the pressure is on. i hope they resist.
