The Queen.

The Queen's message to mark Commonwealth Day:

" In this year of my Platinum Jubilee, it has given me pleasure to renew the promise I made in 1947, that my life will always be devoted in service."

The Dean of Westminster's words:

"...we also thank God for her faithfulness and commit ourselves to learn from an example of duty and service."

we also thank God for her faithfulness and commit ourselves to learn from an example of duty and service.

Not all of us.

Do you learn nothing from ‘an example of duty and service’ volver?

volver

Germanshepherdsmum

I doubt many people expect her to keep working at her age volver. She expects it of herself.

Because she believes she's indespensable.

Because we keep telling her how much we need her.

Because we keep telling her how wonderful she is to keep "working"

Because she believes she made promise to God, that God expects her to be Queen till she drops.

It's not healthy.

Perfectly healthy, if it is what she wants and she can do it.

Until comparatively recently, no-one retired. They couldn't afford to, If you didn't work, you didn't get paid, so unless they had saved a good nest egg for your old age they did whatever they could either to keep the money coming in or to keep the home or farm operating.

They kept going until they keeled over - old grannies sitting by the fire still kept spinning the wool to clothe their families, old men (and old women) still worked in the fields until their joints made it impossible, doctors and lawyers were still advising their clients or delivering babies well into old age. Meanwhile the oldies told the youngsters how they ought to be doing it (whether the youngsters were grateful for this advice is questionable).

The old age pension for people aged 70 or over only came into effect on January 1st 1909, and you could only receive this pension if you were deemed of "good character"

The Dean of Westminster's words:

"...we also thank God for her faithfulness and commit ourselves to learn from an example of duty and service."

Amen

Oh, I'm going to be unpopular, apologies in advance...

I've learnt a lot about duty and service from people in my own family, who have gone above and beyond many times. I'm not having lessons in duty from someone who has spent her life shaking hands, making small talk, signing documents over which she has no input (allegedly) and living in a series of palaces.

One of my gg-grandfathers worked in a tannery till he was in his eighties, another died off Spitzbergen aged 66, working on a whaler.

I don't need lessons on how hard life was for old people, thanks Elegran.

volver are you bored?

Nah, eating breakfast.

It passes the time...

This isn't about 'how hard life was for old people' volver, though I could certainly swap stories with you from my own family in the days when they worked until they dropped and might qualify for a loaf of bread from the parish but had to wear a badge on their clothes - P for Pauper. When they were buried the vicar noted them as a 'pauper' in the registers. It's about dedicating your whole life to service regardless of what you would really rather do with it. Service of rude and ungrateful people as well as of those who appreciate it.

elegran made an interesting post about how older people used to work hard and get nothing back, as if that is justification for the queen working into her nineties.

I'm sorry I'll never accept that it is praiseworthy to keep doing the things she is doing, preventing the monarchy from moving on into the 21st century and perpetuating the idea that older people are paragons of service and duty.

I don't have anything to be grateful to her for, really. Do I?

(hard hat on)

Yes, you have much to be grateful for volver. But I’m not about to say more than that because your default position is to sneer and deride.

You took the wrong message out of my post, Volver, in your rush not to be patronised and state that you "don't need lessons on how hard life was for old people" (And I don't like being patronised either)

The point was in the first sentence, a reply to your "unhealthy" comment. "Perfectly healthy, if it is what she wants and she can do it"

Your ancestors seem to me to have lived (and died) pretty much par for the course. Perhaps their attitude was a healthy one for them - it would have been what they expected to do.

No GSM, I have not sneered or derided.

Its the truth. Although many people don't like to hear criticism of what they believe is a god-given ruler and an unassailable system of government.

If anyone would like to tell me what I should be grateful for, rather than just saying "there's lots of things, its obvious", then I'd be glad to hear.

Anniebach

Freedom of choice for anyone in their nineties GSM ? They need to be in homes, and certainly not allowed to vote in any
elections, wills made must be ignored , all rights must be taken from them,

As I asked before….where has anyone said anything like that ? Seriously ?
If Annie won’t answer can anyone else ?

What is meant by “duty and service” anyway - If it’s something you’ve chosen to do ? Am I showing “duty and service” by volunteering at a foodbank - when I’ve chosen to do that? HM is of the mindset that God has ordained her to sign a few papers, wave and shake hands or whatever it is she does. Ok that’s her choice - she could have walked away but didn’t want to, now we are all falling over ourselves to sing her praises.

The point was in the first sentence, a reply to your "unhealthy" comment. "Perfectly healthy, if it is what she wants and she can do it"

The unhealthy thing is that we keep telling her how much we need her to be in post. And that there is no way out. And that at we accept her inevitable aging and inability to fulfil some of the role, as though the role can be modified depending on who does it.

Which it clearly can, in some people's estimation.

The Queen didn’t volunteer

She didn’t choose to be Queen. Neither did her father choose to be King. Both accepted what had been forced on them by the abdication.
If you seriously believe her duties consist of signing a few papers, waving and shaking hands I’m genuinely sorry for you.

I don’t think you keep telling her how much you need her to be in post volver (quite the opposite) and I doubt you know anyone who tells her this. I certainly don’t.

Still waiting to hear all the things she's done for us and what I have to be grateful for.

Monarchs never "volunteer". But some of them know when the time has come to hand over to someone else.

You won’t be hearing what she does from me, as I said above. Pointless. But you’re an intelligent woman - you know perfectly well what she does but refuse to acknowledge it.

No GSM, I don't. I really don't.

I will think about it this morning while I'm in M&S but I really don't.

Germanshepherdsmum

I don’t think you keep telling her how much you need her to be in post volver (quite the opposite) and I doubt you know anyone who tells her this. I certainly don’t.

Well, a goodly proportion of this thread is about how she needs to stay in post....

We do much the same to our own ageing grandparents, who may be tired, frail and in pain, and looking forward to shuffling off this mortal coil and an end to it all. Instead, we won't let them go, we tell them how wonderful they are to keep going, how we couldn't bear to lose them, how indispensible they are to us. They are aware of all this - any one of us who knows they are probably in the last decade of their life is aware that they are winding down.

Or perhaps we should tell them it is time they signed off, they are no use any more, they should be making room for the next generations?

The Queen isn't daft, or senile, she can make her own decisions. Younger members of the RF are doing more each year, and have been for some time. There will be a transition, and it will be in the next few years, but at the moment it is happening gradually. They are being eased into place. The Queen is still head of the Firm, for the time being. Like Grandma still being the matriarch of the family, though others are taking more and more of the burden.