The Lady Diana Spencer (A/k/a Princess Diana)

I have just finished watching a brilliant film called “Spencer” and it has prompted me to write about this much loved “People’s Princess.” No wonder the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences has chosen Ms Kristen Stewart as a nominee for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Bravo! We who r American used to adore the Princess and liken it to a fairy tale life, to be swept up into the arms of the man who would be King someday, Prince Charles. And she had it all, we imagined: the breeding, the exceptional beauty, excellent figure, to have captured the Prince’s fancy! Ahhh, but all that glitters is not gold, as we have observed. We have familiarized ourselves w the damned tabloids, and the paparazzi, even unto death, death in a limousine, by a drunken chauffeur, chased even then in Paris, to her death at a tender age of 36 years…

But Spencer does not deal w the later years. It is a study of a short period when William was about 12 years old as the elder son. And Harry is there too, 2 years younger, and Diana is unraveling in front of the royal family, and the servants r spreading how the Princess is going insane, w self-abuse, including self-cutting, the bulimia, the moods, even looking at horrible dreams, of the past, of Anne Boleyn, contemplating suicide, hatred of the wretchedness of being unwanted, and knowing her husband is getting away w the affair of his heart, while still married to her. It is a veritable destruction of the self, as barbed wires get cut, in a kind of escape to a home she used to have…now boarded up, uninhabited, w a rat the only live thing within. Comparing oneself to a pheasant, so pretty w its feathers, about to be served up as dinner! This is the Diana we see in the film, and it is stark, and melancholy. We can imagine being in a gilded cage, waiting to be guillotined by the rules, the schedules, the unholy monotony of it all, and never an escape!

I think that this performance is worthy of the Oscar, but I have yet to see Penelope Cruz in “Parallel Mothers.” I am reminded of this lousy trait we tend to have, and dislike in ourselves for having it: schadenfreude, which is a joy we get in seeing other people suffer some fate that we begrudge them. As if we r all envious of he who gets things that we cannot. So we want to see them suffer in their situation. No one is entitled to everything after all! And the royal life is wholly apart from any life we live, that is certain. All that art, crowns, servants, Rolls Royces, wheel on the right, fabulous couture, even gigantic pearls upon that dainty neck, so beautiful, rare and yet despised all the same, because Charles gave it to Camilla as well as Diana. At the same time! As if mocking her.

Royal watchers: be sure to eat up this film, as it’s a gobsmacked dessert of rarest fillings and fluff. And u may have a side of schadenfreude w it too, one lump or two. I miss her too, the real Princess. Signed her book placed in Harrod’s at some point after she died, w my condolences to the Royals for their loss. There is a lovely garden in her memory in Hyde Park, London. We visited that too, me and 2 friends, all Americans visiting London, a favorite city. I found myself thinking of Prince Harry, w Meghan his American wife, living in the USA now, w their 2 children, and imagining it is very hard to be Prince Harry, looking at this film, which tho fictional, uses elements from Diana’s life as it actually was, and finding it painful to dissect the trap Diana found herself in, to be tied to basically no one except her sons, and a fired but rehired servant, and they all clamp down on her, like a rat in a trap actually, dour faces w disapproval coming in waves of torment…I feel for Harry. He lives in this country now, and it does differ greatly from the life he had before. And he must find a way to reconcile the history w the truth.

He will not let Meghan suffer the fate that almost befell Diana, from which there was no real escape at one point, but perhaps suicide. May the Princess rest in peace and her descendants find a way to exist within the confines of that gilded cage. And the song by the Boomtown Rats is playing in the background, very apt for this movie, tho not in it: “I Don’t Like Mondays.”

Time Ages Me

I find myself very contemplative, writing out my life in essays, month by month, over the years of this blog. Trying to find new corners of reminiscence, and wisdom of age, to help my fellow man, and make sense of my small existence on this rock called Earth. I am convinced that it is inherently a failure of our species to advance enough in this timeline to see the existence of even microbial life elsewhere in this galaxy, even tho its existence seems to be closer to being proven daily, w the Mars Rover picking up samples of the surface of Mars, for transport back to Earth, in some manner, some day, to be examined by our scientists at NASA. One day they will find proof of life elsewhere but this 3rd Rock from the Sun, in the Milky Way Galaxy. The only question is will I be alive to see it on the news?

I am convinced further that intelligent life exists in the Universe, and we r but one planet w decidedly higher opinions of itself, in the cosmos, compared w the other intelligent and undoubtedly more advanced life on other planets, but not proven yet, because we aren’t advanced enough yet. Far from it. We r infants in the advancement game, actually, and we find it very threatening at this point, to contemplate more advanced life, except in our science fiction, on TV and in the movies, online, etc. When we make such stories up, we always emerge victorious as a species because we need to see ourselves as superior in some elemental way, to reduce our own anxiety about the truth of our lacking cohesion as a species.

We just LOVE Star Trek and its many incarnations because it creates a world where we have advanced as a species to have a common interest in further knowledge and exploration, and doing good for others, generally. Being benevolent w those who r less fortunate than we r. In the real world, we rip each other to pieces, distrust, hatred and maiming, killing each other, atrocities, creating killer pathogens, to murder our enemies…u get it. We all live here and know how fucked up our world is (forgive the expletive, but I am disgusted. It seemed appropriate to use in this context.) We r far from eliminating all hunger, disease, weather calamities, natural destruction, like tornadoes, wildfires, hurricanes, monsoons, floods, volcanoes, earthquakes, pick your poison. We r not masters of our fates, far from it, as the pandemic has taught us. But yet, we create happy moons of movies, to watch, and delude ourselves that the calamities will pass us all by. Mankind emerges victorious in Hollywood, because we control that narrative, not the real life.

But back to how time ages me. Duh! Time ages all of us, day by day! Even if we r forced to go to plastic surgeons, hairdressers, makeup artists, dietitians, medical doctors, physical trainers, all manners of employers whose job it is to make us look younger and prettier, even as we age. Even that aged group known as the Baby Boomers, of which I am a part, now being aged 58-76 years old, in this year 2022, they were born from 1946-1964. My 58th birthday is coming in 3 months. I have a blog entry I keep adding to, of the Meaningful Ancient Giants Among Us, of actors and activists, people of note and expertise, that I admire, all of whom r aged 83 and up, as of the calendar date of October 4th, 2021. Because to be 83 is to be ancient to me, who is now only 57…and some of these giants will be on a cruise I am boarding, this month, to celebrate Star Trek yet again! We r gone to the Caribbean for a week’s worth of parties and fun, a charter ship, w many celebrities on board too, and special charity events to go to, if u r lucky to snag a ticket. I did!

I am glad overall, to be this age. I am still enjoying things, and am able to, and am retired, comfortably. It could certainly be worse than it is. I also relish my freedom, and sometimes find myself bemused that being single, I don’t have to listen to concerns about how a flight coming in at midnight, or later, and we need to drive an hour or an hour and a half to get home, on icy roads, while physically exhausted, is the way to go, because we won’t spend for a hotel room, to sleep it off, until it’s safe the next day. I would never stand 4 it, but when u r a wife, u r supposed to be subservient, and obedient, to your husband’s will, even if he’s dead wrong! Nope, glad I am not a wife! In this case. No one’s life is worth the risk of the accident that could easily happen under such driving conditions. Driving sleepy = driving drunk. Even tho the law will not arrest u for doing the wrong thing, u did place 2 lives in jeopardy, when u decided to do this. I can also recall 2 parents who drove from Queens to Atlantic City, w their infant daughter in the back seat, during a blizzard, without consulting either me or the weather forecast. They were caught overnight in the car, in a snow drift, unable to move, in the freezing cold! The motor stalled. Not even a blanket in the trunk! I yelled them to death upon their return home, as they not only endangered their own lives, but also their infant daughter, at the time. I thank God they got help from AAA, eventually, but they froze in that tiny car too, overnight! This is what u get by aging: wisdom, good common sense, experience, knowledge, maybe more, maybe less, but it’s well worth the journey, whether in the Milky Way, or the Caribbean Sea. And while u r at it, play a nice ditty by Stevie Nicks, like The Landslide, or Dreams, by Fleetwood Mac. It’ll put u in a better mood than this world leaves u in.

Or something rocker like, like Badlands by Bruce Springsteen. I can take it all, because the music has played all thru my life, and it makes this Rock somewhat more bearable, yup. Dancing thru life, w a tune in my head, swirling a dress, drinking a Sex on the Beach, or an Amaretto Sour…and feeling downright groovy. Watch me, kids, I’m gonna party online, and talk up to the stars, and w them too, soon…so I’m happy doing the countdown to Port Canaveral, Florida. And aging ain’t so bad when u have this taste of Paradise in your wine glass.