A lot of people seem to be outraged that community help organizations have stopped operating this week out of respect for the queen. I honestly can’t think of a better tribute to a monarch passing than for a financially struggling country to be forced to ‘ride out the storm’ so we can do the patriotic thing by watching a man in a jewel encrusted crown cry whilst his mum gets lowered into cold wet mud after which someone will sing God Save the King at him, an empty gesture in some way as when it was sung for his Mum it didn’t really seem to do much good.
There has been a real outpouring of love for the Queen. Not really in person. I’ve maybe seen about three bunches of flowers and most of those have been supplied by primary school children, possibly friends of her second eldest son. The real outpour has been on the internet, where people are free to say whatever mad shit they like into the void and then immediately forget about it. I want to immortalize some of the things that came out after the Queen decided to bottle it. The sorts of things you’d maybe make and put in a scrapbook thirty years ago and show your cousin who’d nod and say ‘that’s nice’, but now is open to criticism from literally any daft bastard who knows how to search a hashtag.
There was a poem, you may have seen it. Here it is, if you haven’t.
Philip came to me today,
and said it was time to go.
I looked at him and smiled,
as i whispered that "I know"
I then turned and looked behind me,
and saw I was asleep.
All my Family were around me,
and I could hear them weep.
I gently touched each shoulder,
with Philip by my side.
Then I turned away and walked,
with My Angel guide.
Philip held my hand,
as he lead the way,
to a world where King's and Queens,
are Monarch's every day.
I was given a crown to wear
or a Halo known by some.
The difference is up here,
they are worn by everyone.
I felt a sense of peace,
my reign had seen its end.
70 years I had served my Country,
as the peoples friend.
Thank you for the years,
for all your time and love.
Now I am one of two again,
in our Palace up above.
This poem was written by Joanne Boyle. She is not a professional poet, she is just someone who wrote a poem in her spare time. The following is not intended as an attack on Boyle, it's an attack on the subset of the nation that feel this poem appropriately represents their feelings toward the monarchy. A chain letter riddled with mistakes and fallacies that could be replaced by the words ‘R.I.P Queen. I am sad. Phillip is also dead’ and convey the same information.
“as he lead the way,
to a world where King’s and Queens,
are Monarch’s every day.”
This is this world, by the way. Kings and Queens are monarch’s everyday here. They don’t get weekends off where they have to give back the crown and wear a bin bag and sleep on a bench, but whatever. My main problem with this (apart from all of it) is that this is such a vacuous sentiment to be sharing. If you have been following the royals for 50 years or so I can understand taking a moment to reflect on the impact they’ve possibly had on the culture of the country you live in, but hitting that ‘share’ button on some poem that wouldn't pass a GCSE literature test, what are you trying to say? What are you trying to prove? To who? I really don’t get it. I’m preaching to the choir here, its just all a bit mad, isn’t it? To me this is identical to if David Beckham were to die tomorrow and Facebook was flooded with this;
“David Beckham kick a ball
David Bekham had big fall
Football man has go away
Football man have died today”
By far the post I saw that perturbed me the most was this;
I know at first glance it seems innocent, and I haven’t seen the Paddington films or read any of the books so I apologize if I have missed this backstory, but Paddington being able to cross into the realm of the dead is a pretty big deal. Paddington being able to knock on the very doors of hell and hand someone off was not the implication I think this user was going for when they added that text to this image.
I know I haven’t added anything to any conversation today. I don’t think anything I can say will add anything to this discussion. It's taken the death of the queen for me to realize just how much of an anti-monarchist I am, but I think I am just as confused by the people who see them as friends to be mourned.