Beyond the Face on the Screen 3/24/2024

By: Jennifer Richardson Holt

I was already at the end of the week and hadn’t the slightest idea what I should write about.  When I am all the way to Friday and don’t even have a settled topic, there may be a slight bit of panic that creeps in. I’ve been writing this blog for several years now and to date, though I am admittedly a bit afraid to put this into type, I haven’t yet had to miss a weekly post.  There have been a few preplanned posts and there have been a few glitches that caused a post to go up at a random and unplanned time but to date, I haven’t missed a week. Any number of circumstances could change this though.  But if something did happen and I saw that I was absolutely not going to be able to give you a blog I would likely give you at the very least a note saying so.  But I digress as per my usual. I was at a loss of what to write this week and now let me tell you how one word from my daughter gave me a very involved topic.

I employed a method I have used many times before.  I asked my daughter what I should write about.  I can’t always exactly use her suggestions but this time, her single word gave me an idea. And that idea turned into a whole train of thought that led down a rather unexpected path. My daughter, with very passionate expression, insisted that I write about unicorns. Now, I need to give you the context for this request. We had just been discussing the United Kingdom and its components and she leaned that the animal symbol of Scotland was the unicorn.  This had gained the country a considerable amount of clout in her eyes at it is her favorite animal. I knew she was thinking of this because we had just had the discussion about how much she likes the UK because of their unicorn connections.  It’s perfectly understandable.

If you’re a regular reader you know I am an unabashed Anglophile and am instilling a similar sentiment in my daughter hence the aforementioned conversation.  This made me begin to think about the goings on of the United Kingdom.  If you follow any of the current events, you’ll know that the Princess of Wales has recently come forward to announce that she has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy.  And if you follow said current events you will also know that the world was going crazy speculating what was afoot with Kate. I understand she is a public figure, but the conspiracy theories were a bit much since we had been told that she was recovering from surgery.  People all over the planet were making guesses as to what was being hidden about her and what might be going on.  It was free for all that really, only was slightly abated by her difficult announcement.

The world I grew up in was just getting the hang of this internet thing.  We had it but hadn’t quite turned it into the all-inclusive right to know about any and everything that it is today. I guess because we have ridiculously easy access, we think we should know about all the things.  I think perhaps we have forgotten that these people and places we read about on our handy little mobile screens are in fact real people and real places. While I understand wanting to know what is going on with a princess, we are such keyboard warriors now that for some reason we feel a certain amount of entitlement behind our screens. This woman is a wife and mother.  Her children are young. I imagine there is already a significant challenge to keep their life even a tiny fraction of normal being little heirs to the throne. But now there is the weight of their mother having a diagnosis that will humble the highest of positions. How many of us have experienced the fear and concern that cancer causes?  And yet for some reason because this is placed upon a public figure’s head, we can see it almost as a source of intrigue rather than a family for which we should care and pray.

I understand the wanting to know I suppose. I just think our reasoning for wanting to know has gone a bit askew. Many find interest in stories such as these that grab the headlines. I myself frequently keep up with the latest developments of the royal family and the like, but I even found myself getting caught up in the outlandish ideas swirling around the empty spotlight of a princess.  I need to remember though that she is a woman. She is almost exactly my age. Like me she has young children and a husband. This is a battle she will have to face with the entire world watching the conflict. I hope that I and all of us can keep in mind that while she may be the future queen, she could also be any of our sisters, wives, mothers or friends.  May I never forget that celebrity does not negate humanity and someone we see on a screen needs as much hope and love as any of the rest of us.