I miss Queen Elizabeth II

[PadPhilosopher]

That may sound like a strange thing for an American to say, especially long after her passing, but it's true. I thought about it, nay, realized it just now, because of the strong British presence here, and suddenly became sad.

Throughout my childhood and most of my adult life, she was there. Beautiful, classy, and staid. She knew probably a dozen US Presidents, but while they came and went, sometimes amidst much angst, she remained. As Britain was our motherland against which we rebelled in infancy, in adulthood we set aside our differences and became allies and friends with that great ship of state. Though we didn't agree on everything, the mutual respect was strong, and the symbol of Britannia, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, was a mother figure in her own right.

Her passing marked the end of an era; a good era, which I, one of the odd Americans who followed British news and culture somewhat, was very sad to see end. It lasted longer than most would have ever guessed, as Her Majesty lived far longer than most, and was active and public almost to the end. I was grieved far more than I expected to be when I learned of her promotion to final glory with her Lord. Though she is gone from us, God bless her memory, and may we never forget her example.

 

[Diapersntights]

I'm just a bit younger than her eldest grandson, yet until the year before last, QE II was all I'd known on the British throne - it was some reign. Can't believe she didn't get to a hundred like her mother did, but once DofE went, the Queen seemed a little lost, which isn't something you associated with her. Guess lockdowns etc didn't help either.
I often thought how reassuring it was that in 1968 the Rolling Stones released a song called Jigsaw Puzzle on the Beggars Banquet album in which "the Queen is bravely shouting, what the hell is going on?" (we'll ignore what she was written to do next!) and well over 50 years later Mick Jagger could sing the same line about her and basically nothing had changed, the Queen was still the Queen and the Stones were still the Stones and in a crazy world, things like that offering stability are important

 

[Seasonedcitizen]

I remember her last Christmas message to her people. She probably read it off of a teleprompter but did it flawlessly. Unlike our President.

 

[Millbay]

Somehow the world seems empty without QEII!

 

[LittleAndAlone]

"in adulthood we set aside our differences"

Not really. They still whine and try to tell us how to live our lives and want us to ban everything and be like them. I'm like no thanks, do we have to kick your asses again for you to remember that we are not you and to leave us alone?

Also the vanity of self proclaimed royalty and kings and queens in 2024 irks me. That doesn't fly for me in the post gunpowder age. Nobody is a master over me.

 

[PadPhilosopher]

"in adulthood we set aside our differences"

Not really. They still whine and try to tell us how to live our lives and want us to ban everything and be like them. I'm like no thanks, do we have to kick your asses again for you to remember that we are not you and to leave us alone?

Also the vanity of self proclaimed royalty and kings and queens in 2024 irks me. That doesn't fly for me in the post gunpowder age. Nobody is a master over me.

Parents always do that. Just because we wish our children would do things differently, and say so, doesn't mean we don't respect them. It's all a matter of the tone of the interaction.

The British monarchy is largely symbolic at this point, and has been for a long time. The Brits are largely Royal subjects in name only; the laws come from parliament, and their government functions very much like that of the US, including in bad ways, such as tremendous overreach. I do see value in having a more long-term figurehead at the top, as long as it's a good one, but also see, as our founders did, the danger in it. My appreciation is not for the existence of the British monarchy, which I agree is in many ways quite silly, but for Queen Elizabeth II herself, as a person.

But let's not squabble over this, especially here.

 

[ulyanova]

I do not often interact in this forum. But honestly, I feel somewhat similarly. I hold quite the disdain for monarchies and aristocracy as a whole — Some relic of long gone era of my country which still rubs off on me to this day. An essence of a nation in which this land once belonged to, yet I was not born in. But the British monarchy, I could get around it. Queen Elizabeth II was sort of our constant, natural state of things. My parents had seen only her on the throne, and my grandparents saw her get it while they were young and fresh as am I. And to see her gone brings to me the same lingering lack of care I feel for the others. And she became the Queen in times past, in a society where such things still had their place. Truly, as you said, the end of an era. Symbolic or not, a new monarch in the 21st century simply feels strange. Out of place. Without her, it does not feel the same.

I carry little sympathy for the romanticization of monarchical regimes. One that particularly irks me is Tsarist Russia, even though they were many years behind much of the world and truly horrible place to live in for the population. But they were a product of their time, and she was a product of hers. The world has changed. With her death came the death of a time. To see the King in our times feels so strangely out of place in contemporary world.

I still have not gotten around it.

 

[Hemix]

Nay, as long as there are people who were born with privileges, it wasn't that good. The thing is monarchy is supported by the same kind of powers that support mass media where it's usual to romanticize that kind of things.

I do understand that, unfortunately, that kind of things get tattooed in our memories, so it's hard dealing with that kind of loss, either forcibly or voluntarily.