My heart aches for Price Charles, he looks, as one would expect, heartbroken. A man who has lost his dad. My heart also aches, of course, for The Queen, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and all the Royal Family who have lost a husband, a father, a grandfather and a great grandfather. Yes, this is the Royal Family but, at this time, they are a family, like any other, in mourning and they are not inured to the pain by virtue of their social status.
I see that the ‘jokes’ started as soon as we learnt the news of Prince Philip’s passing (if not before!). It is, of course, by any measure of civilised behaviour, in bad taste to be laughing and joking about the Duke’s passing and The Queen’s heartbreak but it is, I guess, people’s prerogative to behave that way if they choose to do so. However, the fact that 99.9% of us don’t personally know the Royal Family, that shouldn’t stop our inherent empathy from kicking in at this time, regardless of whether or not we are Royalists. I hear of the passing of many people I don’t know but the fact of my not knowing them, that doesn’t result in my making ‘jokes’ about their passing, that doesn’t result in ‘cracking jokes’ at the expense of a family in mourning.
There are times when we get a real look at people, when we see what and who they really are – this is one of those times, a time in which we are afforded a close look at the hearts and souls of those around us.I’m not sanctimonious, I’m not ‘holier-than-thou’, I’m merely drawing a distinction between those whose values include compassion, love, kindness and empathy and those whose values do not include those values/elements:
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