The Queen

I greatly admire Queen Elizabeth II. A few months ago, I received The Queen on DVD as a gift. Helen Mirren was awesome. I so love the little speech that the Tony Blair character made about the sacrifice of the Queen.

Elizabeth has certain everywoman characteristics that I can relate to as a mature woman and not a cinderella fantasy. She has (had) an incredibly heavy load of responsibilities most of her adult life and particularly as a working parent. Her choice of a husband was not universally accepted at the time, although he was royalty. She has several children who haven't always made the best choices and one or two may not have met her expectations. She obviously tries hard. She can make mistakes and as the film so carefully detailed and has also faced those mistakes.

This was even more interesting to me as I pondered some of the blessings we women receive in our endowments. We are not to be Cinderella and be swept off our feet by Prince Charming. We are queens in our own right, with or without a consort, and we have responsibility to others along with our privilege. As is so wonderfully shown in the film, it is a life of hard work, great thought and meditation, devotion to duty, and great restraint. Soldier, auto mechanic, diplomat, mother, grandmother, head of state and manager, she is a great example.