Now That's Why We Have a Monarch!

It is easy to make the mistake of assuming that there are monarchs in the UK so the rest of us can enjoy big weddings every 30 years or so.  Yesterday we saw another real good reason for the English to keep them around.

The English-Irish conflict goes back a while.  It is hard to imagine the depths of the visceral hard feelings that entire generations of Irish and English have felt for each other.  (By English, I use a common collective term, however inexact!)  Countless thousands have died fighting for various versions of self-determination and tribal honor.  Families on both sides of the Irish Sea have been disrupted throughout modern history because of this mighty struggle between neighbors.  It is hard for us to realize the complexities of this negative relationship, which continued even after Irish Independence began in the 1920's.

A cool war continued until more recent times, when the world became smaller and settling scores from the middle ages seemed thankfully less important.  So cooperation, management of those Northern Counties and their conflicts, economics and modernization brought the Isles closer together.  But no Queen had come to visit.

Well, she arrived yesterday.  In Emerald Green, her Royal Presence pierced the hearts, probably, even of the protesters.  Without precedent, she reverently visited the Garden of Remembrance, and today will visit the site of Bloody Sunday.  Twenty years ago I would have thought such a vision impossible, but it will become a reality today. 

What we are seeing is reconciliation bearing fruit.  Much work and sacrifice has created this opportunity for healing.  There is no way to erase the past, but there is a way to shape a positive future in spite of the bloody past.  We all have a great Queen, one of those rare persons who can carry her office and her duties in a way that is larger than life, and that makes life better- rewarding those who do the hard work with the final healing ointment of acknowledged final reconciliation. 

It is beautiful to see, wonderful to appreciate, soul-stirring to imagine what these acts of a monarch might mean for the children of those British Isles, and in other places in our world that seem beyond hope of reconciliation.

"How long, how long must we sing this song?
How long, how long?
Tonight, we can be as one,
Tonight..."       -U2: Sunday, Bloody Sunday