With a last name like Thurber, I must be British. At least I like to think so. My father used to say we came over on the Mayflower, so I am comfortable claiming Britain in my loins.
Notwithstanding that likely heritage, I did not think about the Queen much. I do feel the sadness of her loss and the sorrow that must be felt through the United Kingdom today.
What I do love about the Queen is her consistent and ongoing engagement with history, from WW11 through the Afghanistan war. The Cold War, the Vietnam war, all wars and by extension all periods of peace as well. The wars would normally be seen as the times that were most turbulent, but I think that all is turbulence today. Are there more than a few minutes of rest without drastic dramas taking place everyday? It does not seem so.
The thing about the queen, she lived and led though all of it, and did not lose her grip on account of changing history, even declining history. She kept a stiff upper lip as the Brits used to say.
Churchill did not last nearly as long in power as the queen did, but Churchill was a great symbol of persistence in the most dire times. Never, Never, Never Quit was his thing. Humanity needs the Churchill Spirit more than we know.
The Queen had it as well. She was less brash, sarcastic, more royal, less common perhaps. But she and Churchill shared the perspicacity and fierce resolve of the British people, the British Bulldog he was and she was the longest Monarch.
The two of them are heros of the last century. There are not many like them, few if any I’m afraid to say. I believe we will see their like again, but I can’t say when or who. I just believe that, mostly because history calls forth the heros when they are needed.
They both lay at their rest now. We go on. And whatever is in you of Britannia today must sally forth to meet the new day. As they say, God Bless the Queen. As they will soon say, God Bless the King.