"Better days will return . . ."
On October 13,, 1940, the future queen of England - the then 14-year old Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor - made her first public speech over the B.B.C. It was a brief address of less than two minutes to the children of the United Kingdom - the children of the Commonwealth - many of them living far away from home due to the war. It was a time when the German Luftwaffe was bombing London virtually every night, causing untold damage and destruction. In her speech, the teenage princess said, in part:
Thousands of you in this country have had to leave your homes and be separated from your fathers and mothers. My sister Margaret Rose and I feel so much for you as we know from experience what it means to be away from those we love most of all.
To you, living in new surroundings, we send a message of true sympathy and at the same time we would like to thank the kind people who have welcomed you to their homes in the country.
All of us children who are still at home think continually of our friends and relations who have gone overseas - who have traveled thousands of miles to find a wartime home and a kindly welcome in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States of America.
My sister and I feel we know quite a lot about these countries. Our father and mother have so often talked to us of their visits to different parts of the world. So it is not difficult for us to picture the sort of life you are all leading, and to think of all the new sights you must be seeing, and the adventures you must be having.
But I am sure that you, too, are often thinking of the Old Country. I know you won't forget us; it is just because we are not forgetting you that I want, on behalf of all the children at home, to send you our love and best wishes - to you and to your kind hosts as well.
She concluded her speech by introducing her youngest sister, Princess Margaret who simply said ‘Goodnight children’ and concluded by saying, We know, everyone of us, that in the end all will be well; for God will care for us and give us victory and peace. And when peace comes, remember it will be for us, the children of today, to make the world of tomorrow a better and happier place.
Goodnight, and good luck to you all.
Even at age 14, Elizabeth understood the meaning of noblesse oblige: “nobility has its obligations.” Part of being a leader - whether born to the blue, inheriting it, or earning it for oneself, means to act with generosity of spirit; to uplift and spread optimism wherever and whenever it is required; to point to the sun and the stars when the skies are as dark and cloudy as can be. Among the many, many things our current leader - IMPOTUS - lacks is precisely what Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor possessed oh so many years ago.
She has lived a truly heroic life; one filled with verve, boundless energy and what the French philosopher Henri Bergson called élan vital - the vital force or impulse of life. One possessed of élan vital is capable of bringing a modicum of hope to the hopeless, courage to the fearful, and energy to the physically and emotionally fatigued. Just as were the people of the Commonwealth to whom she spoke over the airwaves in October 1940. She has put more B-12 into the veins of the people of the commonwealth than any 10,000 physicians. And just the other day, nearly 80 years after her first broadcast, she was at it again: infusing hope, optimism and élan vital into the veins of the very people who consider her immortal.
This time around, it wasn’t on radio, but rather the TV. The enemy was not the Third Reich but rather, Covid-19. And yet, the purpose and challenge were virtually the same: to dispense hope, energy and courage; to put all the noblesse oblige she possesses to its best possible use. Yes, it is 80 years later, and the 14-year is now nearly 94, but the message and the purpose are the same: Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it. I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge, and those who come after us will say the Britons of this generation were as strong as any, that the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet, good-humored resolve, and of fellow feeling still characterize this country. The pride in who we are is not a part of our past, it defines our present and our future.
For as long as we can remember, our mother’s mother, “Granny Annie,” told us that we were descended from the British House of Rothschild. Was it true? We don’t know of a certainty, but she was forever pointing out certain physical and personal characteristics I shared with one of her Rothschild uncles. Whatever the case, she imbued us with a strong adoration for the House of Windsor, especially Queen Victoria (who sat on the throne of England during grandma’s childhood) and had the wisdom to make one of our ancestors, Sir Nathan Rothschild (1840-1915) a baron . . . the first Jewish member of the House of Lords who had never converted to Christianity. Whatever the case - and again, no one knows for sure, (including mom, who is now 96), we have always had strong, positive feelings about the House of Windsor. The current leader of that house, Queen Elizabeth II, has certainly shown the world what it means to be a leader . . . even at age 93+.
Among the many things we suffer from these days are leaders who instead of speaking of the future . . . of those who really, truly believe that “. . . better days will return,” are more interested in pointing fingers of blame and abdicating any and all responsibility for what is transpiring. (Indeed, at his March 20 presser, NBC’s Kristen Welker asked the POTUS whether he “takes responsibility for the lag in making test kits available?” His reply consisted of precisely 7 words: “No. I don’t take responsibility at all.”) This is the bipolar opposite of noblesse oblige; it certainly is not giving strength to those who are weak; courage to those who are frightened; nor lending hope for the future. It is anything but.
Every day of the week, the IMPOTUS spends two hours on nationwide television telling one and all how brilliant he is, how much more medically savvy he is than infectious disease specialists, epidemiologists and people who have spent a lifetime dealing with infectious diseases, and precisely who’s to blame for the current pandemic. To be more than blunt, it is disgusting. He has yet to express condolences to the families of those who have expired, regards for those who have placed themselves in harms way, or even a smattering of concern for minimum wage earners who stock shelves, help shoppers, or deliver groceries. We are not paying nearly enough attention to those who put their lives on the line serving us while being under-served by their employers. We should recognize them for what they truly are: heroes and heroines who make our lives possible.
On the bright side, we are beginning to see the sort of “united resolution” HM Elizabeth II referred to in her televised address of April 5th. Newspapers and evening newscasts are introducing us to individuals (many are children), families and communities that have taken it upon themselves to create and hand-make surgical masks; to go grocery shopping for their elderly neighbors, walk their dogs and place daily calls just to say “hi, hello, how are you?” Businesses - including America’s oldest, Brooks Brothers - have retooled in order to manufacture upwards of 150,000 masks and surgical gowns a day. There’s something instinctively warm, caring and innovative about the American people during times of crisis. Oh that the crisis would fade even as the caring and innovation bloom.
And when we one day return to whatever the “new normal” shall be, I for one will look forward to watching an even more elderly “Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith” (her official title), address her subjects and admirers with the same grace, dignity and overwhelming noblesse oblige she first publicly evinced way back on October 14, 1940.
Better days will return.
Wishing one and all a chag samayach, and a meaningful Easter and Pentecost. May they bring hope to one and all.
Stay Well, Stay Safe, Stay Humble, Stay Kind and above all . . . Stay Home.
Copyright©2020, Kurt F. Stone