I've often heard myself complaining about the 'Unhappy Valley' - a place you end up if you're required to be two things at once and therefore can't really be either.
It's happened a few times - especially at work. Occasionally I'm required to do some admin task or other, or take a decision that a Team Leader would usually make, and because of the structure, and the way things have happened, there's no-one else to do those things. Not everyone always agrees that I should be doing that, and yet it needs to be done, so there it is. I land with a thud in the Unhappy Valley. And I have to be careful who I moan to about that.
Careful, indeed. One person who never ever publicly complains... about anything... is The Queen. She's required to be multiple things all at once, not just at work but twenty four hours a day for her entire life. She lives almost imprisoned by her devotion to duty, trapped in a valley of her own, between sovereign, mother, grandmother, head of the church, defender of the nation, leader of her remarkable family, and a focal point for us all. Royalist or not, you've got to admit that to balance all of that so delicately for seven decades is an extraordinary thing.
To add to that list, for the final portion of her long reign, Her Majesty now also has to do all of that as a widow. It occurs to me, given how important those closest to us actually are, that that might be the toughest challenge she's ever faced behind the palace gates. I hope she knows she has all of us behind her.
So, in the hottest take on the news, let me reiterate: I'm comparing myself to The Queen and she comes out the better. Who knew?
But she also gives me perspective - that I can get through the Unhappy Valley with a devotion to duty, with stoic resilience never to complain, never to explain; that quietly and confidently, with grace, elegance and the wisdom to stay silent, I can do a lot of good.
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