Skip to main content

The Meghan and Harry interview -- thoughts on what the reaction has been.

As I have read the articles about the interview this week, I have noticed how loath people are to address the issue of Meghan's mental health (except for Piers Morgan.) And I certainly understand that, given Diana's fate, Carolyn Flack's fate, so many young people who feel that they have just lost too much. 

No one should wish Meghan ill, or blame her for being, well, foolish: even the most competent-seeming person can have dark nights of the soul. I agree with Phillips (writer in The London Times) though that her dark nights shouldn't all be laid at the feet of the RF. She miscalculated what marrying a Royal would mean, she didn't understand how lonely it could be living in a foreign country, perhaps even she found that the man that she thought could protect her couldn't and she would have to take matters into her own hands, cut her losses and go home. With him in tow because she couldn't leave him behind.

No own should blame HER for something that didn't work out but, equally, how can we blame the people who were affected by her choices? The RF didn't recruit her, Harry chose her. The person who warned Harry to think long and hard wasn't being racist, he was being realistic about how tough being the spouse of a RF member is, just as my own relatives were when I thought of marrying someone who was going to pose a lot of challenges in my own life. Love conquers all we think. Ummm, no, no, it doesn't. I went crying to my family after I made my choice and things were hard but, really, what could they have done? Turn their own world upside down for the person who just wasn't thinking about that they wanted from life?

One thing that I think is missing in a lot of the conversation around this is Harry's behavior. As so many have said, he had so much experience in mental health, why did SHE feel she needed to protect HIM? Is it because Harry is still that little boy? And if that's what this is about, then the conversation--for those of us who want to pursue it--should range wider than simply "the nasty racist RF" and discuss why we blame others for the poor choices that we make in spouses and life in general. We think that Meghan and Harry are happy with their life in California--they are certainly trying to insist they are--but it wasn't what they wanted. Certainly not what Harry wanted. I still remember that statement of his, the first Christmas that Meghan was introduced "She has the family she never had before." What had they told each other?

I do think that Harry and Meghan will do fine for the moment. Unless there comes a point where she realizes that, without the RF, she really doesn't need him anymore to become a strong, independent and happy woman. That he actually saps her strength. And, yes, I am projecting on them based on a lot of history that I personally have seen/been through. I completely admit (and hope, for Harry's sake) that I might be wrong. Wallis never left Edward/David, let's hope that that part of history does repeat itself, that Meghan will stay loyal to Harry and that he will grow up and be the man that Meghan needs as well.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

January 2024 and blogging

  I haven't posted on my blog for a long time. Partly that was due to not knowing what to write about and partly it was wondering if I wanted to put myself "out there" anymore. And in what way. I subscribe to a few blogs on Substack, which is a subscription-based blog. You can pay to have your own blog, you can pay for someone else's blog, and that means you get to write and post and get comments back from a whole lot of people. You can comment on other people's blogs--if you pay--or else you can just read the blog and not pay. Of course you might miss some of the "pay only" content--much like modern news media has teaser stuff but to read the whole article, you have to pay for a subscription. The Substack blogs cover all kinds of topics and there are a few "professional" writers--meaning they're journalists and writers who have published and been paid larger bucks than the $5 a month they get per subscription on Substack--but I think most

It’s just another day

  Yesterday was the final day of my 8-day assignment in a 4th grade class; I’ve written something about that assignment in a previous post, “Revolt of the Guinea Pig,” It’s been a challenging 8 days which, as Dickens might have said, brought out the best in me and probably the worst in me as well. But yesterday morning I had that experience that every teacher dreads—shelter in place, also known as possible shooter situation. I had arrived at the school at 7:20 thinking how wonderful it was that our heat had broken a bit. The skies were overcast, we’d had rain the day before, there was a cool breeze. As I walked to my classroom (photos below of what the buildings look like), I waved to the students already gathered on the other side of the gate, who were waiting to rush in, some to the cafeteria for their breakfast, some to the playground to run and hopefully get some of that energy out before the bell rang at 7:55. I unlocked the outside door to our building, walked down the corridor t

And now for something a little different from the substitute teaching lens

  I subbed for my daughter yesterday. I wasn’t sure how I’d cope as I am still somewhat jet lagged but she has a very well behaved fifth grade class: they’re respectful, good humored (most of the time) and willing to learn (most of the time). She warned me the night before that there had been some “issues” this week—kids fighting on the playground, some backtalk in class from a boy who’s normally a very hard worker. With that in mind, I started off my day in the classroom addressing this up front. “I hear it’s been a tough week,” I said and then waited for a response. Some shifting in the chair, some rolling of the eyes, a couple of “Yeah, it really has” emanated from the kiddos. I then sat on the corner of my desk and talked about how I remembered being their age, the emotions, how things seem so very important, so very “raw” in the moment. I shared with them how my own teachers reacted to misbehaviors, after-school detention (Wow, Mrs A, AFTER school? They could DO that?) But then I