A Royal Celebration
In the United Kingdom the flags are out. The reason? Our Head of State, Queen Elizabeth the Second is celebrating her Golden Jubilee - 50 years as monarch, half a century on the throne.
Because I have met The Queen - because, journalistically on your behalf, America, at close quarters, I have observed her as she has carried out a range of her official duties - people ask me, leaning forward, narrowing their eyes, "What's The Queen really like?" Well, I can tell you. Given the weirdness of her life, she seems surprisingly normal. She is 76 and has the interests, attributes and tastes of an English countrywoman of her class and generation. Dogs and horses, courtesy, kindliness and community service, count with her. Essentially conservative (with radical flourishes), intelligent (not intellectual), pragmatic (not introspective), 'immensely tolerant' (that's what her husband, Prince Philip says), she does not pretend to be what she is not. She may be officially apolitical, but she is definitely not politically correct. She wears fur, she goes out horseback riding without a hard hat, and, in her assorted residences, cigarettes are freely available to her guests.
She has a dazzling smile (at close range, it's a knock-out) and a lively, even impish, sense of humour. Life's dealt her a few blows - three of her children have divorced and both her mother and her sister have died in the past few months. But she carries on regardless.
She is awesomely sane and wonderfully grounded. In my experience, there was a streak of hysteria in her ex-daughter-in-law, Princess Diana; there is none in The Queen. She is not self-conscious: she will apply her lipstick whoever is watching. She is not easily flustered: however hectic the schedule, her own steady pace never varies.
Currently she is touring her kingdom, every part of it, and everywhere she goes, the crowds, in their tens of thousands, are turning out to cheer. I have been on tour with several famous people - Princess Diana, the Beatles in their prime. The Queen is different. The others took the cheering personally. The Queen simply takes it in her stride.