August 31st marks ten years since Lady Di died and much of the world is looking back and remembering upon this occasion. In honor of this event I thought that I would write a blog entry a little bit different than my normal format. As our internet connection had been down for a few days, I hope that I'll be able to put this online soon and that it will still seem timely.
JFK's Assasination, 911, and Lady Di's Death are all definitive moments that people remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. As the years go by, people seem more and more disjointed from the rest of mankind and it is these moments that connect people from the far flung corners of the world (and your neighbors as well). People from all over the world watched television and listened to radio coverage of these events. These are events that weren't just experienced by British and Americans but most of the world. These events were all sad but they brought us together, maybe people that might not have ordinarily talked to each other were able to share these moments, these were uniting moments, in times where there is so much that divides us. While I wasn't born at the time of JFK's assination but I have heard and read it discussed enough to know that this is one of the biggest events in lives of Baby Boomers and the other older generations. With such definitive moments, you may not have liked or known that much about the people involved, its impact was of a large enough and memorable scale that you remember where you were when you got the news.
With the definitive moments that I have mentioned, there are no shortage of conspiracy theories. Was there a lone gun man? While I can't say who doesn't love a good conspiracy theory, a great many of us do seem to enjoy discussing them and speculating on what happened and what caused the event? Part of human nature is to question why things happen and with such definitivee moments a conspiracy theory can help us make sense of what happened. It is some how comforting to believe that these events weren't just random and that there was in fact some conspiracy behind them. From the BBC show the Conspiracy Files here are the questions that are often asked about Diana's death. Also from the BBC is an interesting article about the nature of conspiracy theroy. Here is a timeline of events from Diana's death. LondonNet took at look at three of the major theories behind her death and assigned a likelihood to the plausibility of it actually happening. The theories discussed included that her death was faked, that the MI6 Killed her, and that Dodi was targeted by enemies of his father and himself.
Lady Di was many thing to many people, but whatever you might want to say about her (good or bad) she was a lighting rod to the Royals (British and others) and most anything that she did in her life after becoming Princess of Wales. While most English, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh people have definite opinions and feelings about the monarchy, prior to Lady Di, most people elsewhere didn't really think too much about the Royals. She seemed to bring a celebrity status to the Royals and there are those people that would say that this wasn't a good thing and that she was in the spotlight too much. There is a famous expression in public relations, which is that there is no such thing as bad publicity since even that gets a buzz going and people talking.
A few weeks back I rented The Queen on dvd. The movie focused on the events leading up to the memorial service for Diana. While I don't wish to give away too much of the movie to those that haven't seen it, the movie shows the Queen struggling to deal with the death of Lady Di and the unexpected public reaction. As Tony Blair just recently stepped down as British Prime Minister, it was interesting to see his character at work in the movie. I would have liked to see more about the relationship between the Queen and Diana. The Tabloids spent a lot of ink proclaiming that all wasn't well in this area, but many people would like to know what it was really like. I remember thinking when Princess Charles and Princess Diana got divorced that Royalty was now in modern times and that Henry VIII had been married six times but in the past there really wasn't divorce and some terrible fates were met by queens that fell out of favor with their kings.
While it is expected that Royals don't have just ordinary bloodlines, those that marry into royalty usually have some sort of notable pedigree and Lady Di was no disappointment here. On her father's side she was related to King Charles II of England through 4 illegitimate sons. She was also related to King James II of England through an illegitimate daughter. Other famous ancestors include Robert I (the Bruce), Mary Queen of Scots, Mary Boleyn, Lady Catherine Grey. Through Henry Paget, 1st Earl of Uxbridge, she is related to Sir Winston Churchill. Through William Anne Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarie, she is related to Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. Through William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire, she is related to Charles, Prince of Wales (yes, Prince Charles). She is also related to Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford and regarded at the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. Other notable relatives include actor Oliver Platt (a second cousin), as well as cousins Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, and Rainier III. She is also the first cousin six times removed to American Revolutionay War hero Nathan Hale.The New England Genealogical Society published The Ancestry of by Diana, Princess of Wales for Twelve Generations by Richard K. Evans in August 1997 goes into exhaustive detail about most of her notable relatives.
Lady Di was well known for her charitable work. She was one of the first high profile celebrities to get behind the AIDS cause. She was also concerned with landmines and especially the injuries that they cause long after the conflict that put them there was over. Included as beneficiaries at the Concert for Diana website are The National AIDS Trust and The Leprosy Mission among others.
Most everyone has heard the Elton John song "Candle in the Wind 1997" or maybe better known now as "Goodbye English Rose". The song was originally recorded in honor of Marilyn Monroe, now you have to wonder if the newer version will eclipse the original. As the song goes "Your candle burned out long before your legend ever will." So here is the memory of Lady Di.
Here are some web sites that I found when putting together my post...
http://www.geocities.com/tuareg69/diana_e.html There are some nice pictures here.
http://www.princess-diana.com/
Time.com
CNN.com
In other news...
I posted two new videos at our YouTube Channel. One is about the girls and bikes (as promised a while back, in honor of Anna learning to ride her bike without training wheels). The other is of Anna's sixth birthday.
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