The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

Sunday 17 December 2006

Some Timely and Seasonal Thoughts

Lord Stevens' report is out. After a decade the basic points in the death of Diana Princess of Wales remain the same. In my opinion, what it all boils down to is this:

1. Diana died because the driver of the car - who happened to be an employee of Mohamed Al Fayed - was highly intoxicated.

2. Diana died because the car, pursued by the paparazzi, was going much too fast and the impaired driver lost control.

3. Diana died because she wasn't wearing her seat belt.

If there was a conspiracy, it was a conspiracy of bad choices and of fate. God, or whatever others may wish to call the force behind the universe, has made life fragile and uncertain. Babies, and soldiers, and vital beautiful princesses, die untimely deaths. And we're all vulnerable. If Diana can die so can we, or our own beloved and glorious child. And it's all the worse if we feel somehow responsible.

I sympathize with Mr. Mohamed Al Fayed. But for a decade he has chosen to live in fierce and obsessive denial. It is, perhaps, a comfort to believe in a conspiracy rather than face the vulnerability of a few fatal choices by those in the car who proved all too mortal. The realities humble us all.

May the souls of Diana Princess of Wales and Dodi al Fayed rest in peace, now and forever. Amen.

With all due and sincere respect to Prince William, who has apparently performed admirably in his course at Sandhurst, I was delighted to read the reports that the Sword of Honor was to go to a female cadet. And I don't doubt that his royal granny may be a bit pleased herself. According to the accounts Ms. Laycock is an outstanding recipient of the honor.

Last week's column on Princess Alexandra by Margaret Weatherford was delightful. I would simply add an observation that Alexandra's unique status as the third of the three Windsor Princesses in that generation - as well as an ever dutiful royal - has been specially recognized by H.M. the Queen in making her cousin the third lady in the royal precedence after herself and the Princess Royal? outranking even Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.

It also recently struck me that as both have aged Princess Alexandra looks more and more like her cousin Queen Margrethe.

And so, the Christmas and New Year holidays are upon us. Like the rest of us the royals tend to turn to the comforts, joys, and stresses of home and family at this time. And like the rest of us the families evolve and change over the years. This year Prince William's partner, Kate Middleton, is supposed to be more fully included in the family circle at Sandringham. And, if so, it will be interesting to see to what degree she may feature in the Christmas morning trooping of the royals to church.

There's a rather poignant old one-act play called The Long Christmas Dinner by Thornton Wilder, the author best known for Our Town. It portrays a family Christmas dinner as though it spans the generations. Actors come and go, entering the scene from one side and departing on the other, showing the transitions of birth, marriage, and death. But it's the same dinner, ongoing.

In my own family, we had such a dinner spanning over a century. And some of them can still gather back "home" on the holiday while others of us have moved on to new incarnations of the tradition. Those old holidays in my memory were not so dissimilar from that portrayed by Dylan Thomas in "A Child's Christmas in Wales." (Albeit, the older generations of my kin were the teetotal sort.) And the memories are precious.

If the play were set at Sandringham House in Norfolk, the seasonal table would first be headed by Edward VII and Queen Alexandra well over a century ago, and would now have seen the entries and departures spanning six generations of royals. Much of the setting continues as it was in Edward and Alexandra's time, though the menu is much simplified from the Edwardian excess. Now in her 81st year, the Queen is the longest running character in this particular family production... surpassing even her late mother. Kate will simply be the newest to join the cast sharing the Christmas table... and who knows how long her time onstage may last... I just hope they all enjoy the feast.

When we are children Christmas is a time of peppermint candies and sparkling lights, but as we age it also becomes a time of rich dark puddings and some wistful memories. Both have their place, no matter what our status.

I wish a most happy Christmas, and a guid New Year to ane and a'!

Yours Aye,

- Ken Cuthbertson