I love Britain’s royal history and history of the Royals… but I’m not so much a monarchist.
I mean, I have a British Passport (though I am 100% Canadian - so much so, if you squeezed me hard enough Boston Creme would come out… actually, that’s not a great image, forget I said it).
Admittedly though, I love the history of the monarchy. Why?
BECAUSE IT’S CRAZY.
There’s this notion that the Brits are calm, cool and collected.
Stiff upper lip and all that.
This notion is wrong.
The Brits are insane…
and have been cutting heads off kings and queens for hundreds of years just because they felt like it.
Don’t be fooled by the flowers and wall-to-wall coverage of the public’s heartbreaking emotional reaction to Queen Elizabeth II’s death.
The Brits are bonkers.
Charles I believed in the divine right of kings and Britain replied “Let’s see ‘ow that ‘olds up minus yer ‘ed, guvna!”
I’m paraphrasing obviously.
In 1649, Britain just decided they had had quite enough of the whole kings and queens malarkey, thank you very much and got rid of the monarchy entirely for eleven years.
Sure that was a while ago, but then we speed forward to the abdication of King Edward VIII in December 1936… less than a hundred years ago… when he famously said “This king business is hella stressful and zero japes. Me and Wallis finna be touring Nazi Germany for a bit. They love us there” (quoted verbatim maybe).
See? BONKERS.
It’s all fascinating.
Though, it’s easy to forget that the monarchy are ACTUAL people who have real feelings…
But before you start to feel too bad for them, they’ve also presided over some pretty terrible moments in history and caused tremendous suffering for many.
However, that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I want to tell you about the five things I learned from the Queen.
Here we go…
WAVE: People love it when people wave to them. It’s makes them feel noticed. Simply note all the ‘the Queen waved at me once’ stories on social media.
MAKE EYE CONTACT: Just like waving, people love feeling like they have someone’s attention. It’s a moment of calm focus in the chaos of the world and time that is shared by only the two people who are looking in each others’ eyes. That’s kinda magic.
HATS ARE GOOD: The provide shade, shelter, and attitude. What more reason do you need?
ASK QUESTIONS: When you meet someone new, ask them a question about themselves. Nothing too deep required. LISTEN to their answer and ask more questions. It sparks conversation and makes people feel valued.
COMMIT TO THE BIT: When you accept responsibility, separate it from you as a person and carry it through. There’s you and there’s the job. You can do both.
Again, I’m not really a monarchist but I am always trying to learn how to be a better me, and these were some of the things I learned from the Queen.
God save the King and all that.
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