Who’d be a Royal?
With his father still in treatment for cancer, his wife only recently cleared – all in the teeth of his children who, although screened from it, will hear a great deal more than their parents would wish– the Prince of Wales was asked what he believed in ? There must have been a moment when he thought “ oh, spare me” but he is the forthcoming leader of the established (Christian) church and he must answer. And so he did.
I beat him to it. I was stopped by a young man, perfectly clean and decent, with a stack of hand outs, in Kings Road, Chelsea with “You look like a very spiritual person.” This is when I should have run. “ What do you believe in ?”
Choice: walk away: tell him to excuse you: evade as in “Well mostly CofE …”: or answer. I answered. “I believe in the Face of God.” He asked “Where do you find that ?” So I told him the story of the robins who nested in my little garden, laid eggs, fledged young, took them away to evade the cats (always other people’s – not mine) and brought them back on an unforgettable lap of honour where I said “I saw the smallest most beautifully coloured feathers. Face of God. And when in doubt – leopards.”
So then he did his pitch including of course nice people and vegetarian food, pressed the leaflet into my hands by which time I had channeled a remnant of my mother’s formidable charm saying (glance at watch) “You must excuse me”, gently moving away, leaflet disposed of in due course.
I wasn’t offended, or insulted, but I recall vividly a young man to whom I was talking on a bus several years ago who said “There is no difference now between the public and the private.” And I said at the time “That’s the beginning of the end.”
I was taught that privacy was important – almost a right – subject to abuse, surely, and highly relative. But animals sometimes seek privacy and we’re only animals.
I remember a favourite actor saying that as soon as you begin to be known people start asking how you vote, what you believe in and who you sleep with ? The Pof W poor devil – as other Royals – has always been known – I am not sure whether than makes the burden of public life easier or not.
The endless invigilation of my life repels me. I learned over many years the price of fame
or notoriety or royalty – and you can have it. Stories about the high price often exacted in the first two out of three of those alternatives is too high for me. I sought an understanding and acceptance of what I had – in my life and in my belief system.
I haven’t been a Christian in more than expectation, nice stories and confusion. I could never get my head round the Trilogy.
by Andrey Rublev
It sounded suspiciously close to religious schitzophrenia. But I could see – even if I could not understand – the wonder round me. How you healed when you had had an injury. Plant life, bird life, animal life – wonderful documentaries, the behaviour of animals. I admired science but it was based on proof, not acceptance. I sought what I could accept.
The endless miracles of natural life are enough to make me rejoice often. Yes, I can see man’s inhumanity to man – but that’s mankind, often a conceited, blind and silly creature. And if this is the highest brain form – what price cruelty to children and animals, obsession with being right – which comes through different religious forms ?
My God – yes, I call him God – is there – there when lights transform the sky, there when young are born and old die, there is every act of kindess and grace, there in every act of cruelty and stupidity, there in difference and infinite variety, there when I understand that life is highly imperfect but it’s all I have and I celebrate every single bit that I can of it – up to and including “God get me through this madness with Moorfields” and make me a better person.
The rest as the old Irish nuns say I offer up.
Annalog 