Practical Thoughts

Dear Reader, "While we have faced challenges before, this one is different. This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour. Using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal, we will succeed, and that success will belong to every one of us." (The above statement was made by  Queen Elzabeth II in 2020,  in the first year of COVID-19. However, it is a statement that can equally apply to the issues of Climate Change and of how to obtain unity throughout the world.) We are still experiencing in the UK and the Commonwealth the aftermath of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, and also the beginning of the reign of her successor, Charles III. What has been astonishing, however, is the degree of warmth towards the late Queen and even an unexpected degree of welcome for the new King. The idea of the UK becoming a republic looks remote just at this moment. What is quite astonishing for us in the UK is that the new King's entry is e

Dear Reader, I feel that I can truly say that Queen Elizabeth II was full of majesty. Being called "Your Majesty" does not necessarily mean that the recipient of the accolade is majestic, but in the case of the late Queen she continuously provided a standard of bearing that can  surely  be regarded as truly majestic. One of the most vivid facts about her life is that she was fully aware of her mortality, so when - just at the age of 21 - she swore that she would devote her life "whether short or long" to the service of the nation, she fully realised that someday her service would come to an end. It would seem an obvious fact, but in these last few decades when we seem increasingly drawn to the world's attractions and gadgets as though they are the purpose of life, her attitude might now seem to be quaint. She was, of course, firstly  witness to  hardship in the country in the lives of the working people during the Depression of the '30s, and then saw throug