Thoughts on Duty

Queen Elizabeth II is dead and a word most used about her was that she was devoted to her duty.

I’ve been thinking about duty off and on since the whole brouhaha created when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left their royal DUTIES. As an American, I can understand wanting to navigate their own lives rather than have their every move scrutinized and dare I say criticized, by the press, and dictated to them by the institution of the Monarchy.

On the other hand, I guess we all have our roles to play in this world. Even commoners have certain things we think of as duties, like work, and taking care of the house, children, and family members. Yet we can make choices from a wide range of possibilities. But sometimes our outer duty bumps up against a need to take care of ourselves before we take care of others. We, at least, are able to call for help when we need it. There is usually someone else who can take up the slack until we can find a better balance. I’m not sure it’s like that for Royals. Looking at it from the outside, they have a strict set of rules they must abide by. I’m not sure that’s fair.

I can only imagine the weight of having tremendous responsibility thrust upon you because of your birth into a royal family. What must it have been like for young Elizabeth when her uncle, Prince Edward abdicated his duty to become king and her father became the next in line? All of a sudden that meant at some point she would become the ruling monarch? And what was it like to be insulated from the everyday lives of her subjects? I wonder if she ever felt despair that she couldn’t live a life free from being the figure head everyone looked to for comfort and stability?

I didn’t know Queen Elizabeth II, of course. Maybe her personality was perfectly suited for such a role. These questions come from my curiosity about the lives of other people. My life is easy compared to hers. I get to navigate my own path without much interference, or even notice from others. Everyone seems to think they have the right to comment on everything her family says and does. I’m so glad I don’t have to live with that kind of pressure.

I guess what I’m really wondering, is the old idea of duty an outdated thing? Does it seem that the tension between duty to self and duty to others is growing bigger? And what is the true meaning of duty anyway? Is it an obligation or a task chosen with joy and love?

Today is the 21st anniversary of the attack on the U.S. via the World Trade Center and The Pentagon. I think of the many people who felt a strong duty to help save as many people as they could and if they couldn’t save them, to at least recover their bodies for their families. I ask myself, is there any difference between those men and women and Queen Elizabeth II?

I’ll leave my thoughts there because I don’t have any answers. These are just my musings at this momentous time.

To give some perspective, Elizabeth became Queen a little over a year before I was born, so even though I’m not British, she was a kind of constant in the background of my life. I wonder what’s going to happen as King Charles III takes over. Will the idea of Monarchy change? I’ll be interested to see what happens.

I hope you are all doing well and taking good care of yourselves during these difficult times. I’m a big proponent of the idea that the things I learn, and how I care for myself, affects everyone else because we’re all connected.

To my new followers, thanks for joining me. I appreciate your comments and likes.

The Space Between Time

Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards.

Have you ever experienced life shattering events? Yeah, after the last few years, most of us have. In The Space Between Time, Jenna Holden gets slammed by her fiancé walking out, her mother’s untimely death, and losing her job all in one week. But she receives unexpected help when she finds her three-times great-grandmother’s journals and begins the adventure of a lifetime.

The Space Between Time is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords and for Kindle at Amazon, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. If you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. Stay tuned for news when the audiobook version is published.

Lucinda is also the host of Story-Power a podcast where she and her guests discuss their creative endeavors, and/or the stories that have changed their lives. It’s available here on Sage Woman Chronicles and on Apple, Google, and Spotify podcast apps. Please rate and leave a review. It helps people find me.

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