The Coming of Twilight

Britain was rocked this week by the announcement that 83-year-old Queen Elizabeth II has cancelled her annual spring tour abroad, which had been scheduled for Dubai. The shock coms because it suggests--gasp--that the queen is getting OLD! This is nearly impossible for Brits to imagine, many of whom have never known of a time when her visage didn't grace their money, their coins and their stamps and her monogram wasn't emblazoned all over England. If there was one individual who has always seemed immortal, it must be HRM Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor. And in all fairness, she has certainly done her part to maintain the impression that she will likely last forever. The queen is at this time the oldest reigning monarch in the history of England. Only two other monarchs reached their 80s. Of those two, George III was mad and Queen Victoria had all but withdrawn from public life. That stands in stark contrast to a queen who last year conducted 417 official engagements, or more than one a day, while still managing to tend to state affairs and manage her fractious family. The queen is beloved here because she is rightly seen as a symbol of stability in a fast-changing world. But nothing can last forever, and the discovery that the queen is mortal is indeed mortal like the rest of us is sad for not just Britons but the whole world.