Queen Elizabeth
Michigan fan true colors
amazing maize and blue

Queen Elizabeth II was a Michigan fan.

I have that on the authority of my Dad.

Back back back to the days of the Glorious Bicentennial of the United States of America, the powers that be decided that it would be great if the President of the United States hosted a State Dinner (White tie no less) to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 2nd, 1776.

(It WAS July 2nd – you can ask John Adams.)

It was also decided that the principle guest would be none other than the Queen of England, the Great-Great-Great Grand daughter of George III, the feller to whom, the Declaration of Independence was addressed.

BTW the Queen, in her remarks at the dinner did say, “After all, nobody can say that what happened on the 4th of July, 1776, wasn’t very much a bilateral affair between us.”

The dinner was held on July 7, 1976 and you can read all about here. (Notice that the official instructions for the President remind him to pause at the foot of the steps at 8:12pm)

By chance and by the workings of the Constitution, when Queen Elizabeth got out of the car that brought her and her husband to the White House for that State Dinner, none other than those wonderful Grand Rapidians, Jerry Ford, graduate of Grand Rapids South High School and his wife, Betty Ford, graduate of Grand Rapids Central High School were there to greet them.

PBS TV made arrangements to broadcast the dinner on live TV and it was one of the few Bicentennial specials that most of my family watched together.

PBS assembled an all-star cast to deliver commentary that included Julie Child who was concerned that due to the Washington July heat and the fact that they were eating outside in a big tent, many of the dishes might melt on the plate … but would still taste good.

We were watching as PBS showed the Ford’s come out of the diplomatic entrance on the South Side of the White House.

We were watching as the Queen’s limo pulled up.

We were watching as the Queen got out and stood with the Ford’s.

The Queen was wearing a bright yellow gown with a navy over-the-shoulder sash.

“Hey”, my Dad said, “Maize and blue! The Queen must be a Michigan Fan!”

President Ford was a graduate of the University of Michigan.

President Ford had also played football for the University of Michigan.

My Grand Father was a graduate of the University of Michigan.

My Father was a graduate of the University of Michigan.

At the time, it was 8 years before I could say I was a graduate of UofM.

I am still not sure how I managed to graduate but my roommates told me, Michigan has taken steps so it won’t happen again.

My Dad laughed and looked at me and said, “Or do you think the British advance team did their research and picked out the colors?”

I looked at my Dad and shrugged.

My Dad turned back to the TV and said, “Well, I think she is a Michigan fan.”

Who can argue?

declare before you
that my whole life long or short
devoted to service

On her twenty-first birthday, 21 April 1947, Princess Elizabeth was with her parents and younger sister on a tour of South Africa. In a speech broadcast on the radio from Cape Town, the Princess dedicated her life to the service of the Commonwealth.

I was struck by much of the this simple speech.

A speech written and made with no idea, I am sure that anyone was thinking of another 73 years of service yet to come.

There are some really good lines here.

When she said at age 21, “I am sure that you will see our difficulties, in the light that I see them, as the great opportunity for you and me,” I want to say if you only knew.

Here is the full text:

On my twenty-first birthday I welcome the opportunity to speak to all the peoples of the British Commonwealth and Empire, wherever they live, whatever race they come from, and whatever language they speak.

Let me begin by saying ‘thank you’ to all the thousands of kind people who have sent me messages of good will. This is a happy day for me; but it is also one that brings serious thoughts, thoughts of life looming ahead with all its challenges and with all its opportunity.

At such a time it is a great help to know that there are multitudes of friends all round the world who are thinking of me and who wish me well. I am grateful and I am deeply moved.

As I speak to you today from Cape Town I am six thousand miles from the country where I was born. But I am certainly not six thousand miles from home. Everywhere I have travelled in these lovely lands of South Africa and Rhodesia my parents, my sister and I have been taken to the heart of their people and made to feel that we are just as much at home here as if we had lived among them all our lives.

That is the great privilege belonging to our place in the world-wide commonwealth – that there are homes ready to welcome us in every continent of the earth. Before I am much older I hope I shall come to know many of them.

Although there is none of my father’s subjects from the oldest to the youngest whom I do not wish to greet, I am thinking especially today of all the young men and women who were born about the same time as myself and have grown up like me in terrible and glorious years of the second world war.

Will you, the youth of the British family of nations, let me speak on my birthday as your representative? Now that we are coming to manhood and womanhood it is surely a great joy to us all to think that we shall be able to take some of the burden off the shoulders of our elders who have fought and worked and suffered to protect our childhood.

We must not be daunted by the anxieties and hardships that the war has left behind for every nation of our commonwealth. We know that these things are the price we cheerfully undertook to pay for the high honour of standing alone, seven years ago, in defence of the liberty of the world. Let us say with Rupert Brooke: “Now God be thanked who has matched us with this hour”.

I am sure that you will see our difficulties, in the light that I see them, as the great opportunity for you and me. Most of you have read in the history books the proud saying of William Pitt that England had saved herself by her exertions and would save Europe by her example. But in our time we may say that the British Empire has saved the world first, and has now to save itself after the battle is won.

I think that is an even finer thing than was done in the days of Pitt; and it is for us, who have grown up in these years of danger and glory, to see that it is accomplished in the long years of peace that we all hope stretch ahead.

If we all go forward together with an unwavering faith, a high courage, and a quiet heart, we shall be able to make of this ancient commonwealth, which we all love so dearly, an even grander thing – more free, more prosperous, more happy and a more powerful influence for good in the world – than it has been in the greatest days of our forefathers.

To accomplish that we must give nothing less than the whole of ourselves. There is a motto which has been borne by many of my ancestors – a noble motto, “I serve”. Those words were an inspiration to many bygone heirs to the Throne when they made their knightly dedication as they came to manhood. I cannot do quite as they did.

But through the inventions of science I can do what was not possible for any of them. I can make my solemn act of dedication with a whole Empire listening. I should like to make that dedication now. It is very simple.

I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.

But I shall not have strength to carry out this resolution alone unless you join in it with me, as I now invite you to do: I know that your support will be unfailingly given. God help me to make good my vow, and God bless all of you who are willing to share in it.

What can anyone say but the quote the Queen when she quoted Rupert Brooke (an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War), saying, “Now God be thanked who has matched us with this hour”

Now God be thanked who has matched this lady with this hour.

As Big Bill might have said …

I saw her once;

she was a goodly queen.

She was a woman, take her for all in all,

We shall not look upon her like again.

buy shirts for some men
out of work as no work to
manufacture shirts

Adapted from the passage, “Within my lifetime in England money was (very properly) collected to buy shirts for some men who were out of work. The work they were out of was the manufacture of shirts.”

Written by CS Lewis in the essay GOOD WORK AND GOOD WORKS published in The World’s Last Night and Other Essays, 1960, Harcourt, Brace and Company