KING AT LAST, KING AT LAST

"Mom just died, but let me console you."

 Anyone wanting to understand why some people consider the British monarchy a
noble institution and others a dysfunctional family badly in need of therapy need only watch King Charles III's first address to his subjects.

In just a few minutes, the Queen's eldest son manages to express his grief, thank everybody for their kind words, promise to lead what's left of the empire, and made sure to send his love to Harry and Meghan, who have tried their best to upend the Royal Family every way they could short of recreating the Valentine's Day Massacre. 

The expression on the face of the security guy
on the left says it all.

On the other hand, the new king was expected to do this roughly 24 hours after the death of his mother. Coming to grips with his grief was secondary to setting an example for the countries where he is now the first new boss in 70 years. It's the kind of thing that drove Harry from his family in the first place.  

There's a very good reason why I speculated that he might have recorded the message before his mother's death. How did he get through it? The same way, hours before its airing, Charles arrived back at Buckingham Palace, where he shook hands, smiled, and chatted with his subjects as if he had simply been away for a couple of weeks on a Jamaican holiday. It managed to be fascinating, moving, and bizarre all at once.

Nor is he happy that he has less hair than his
elderly father.

Prince William appears now to realize that sooner rather than later it will be his turn to wear the crown. His appearance at Charles's signing-in ceremony showed a different "Wills" than we're used to. Of course, he's mourning for his Grandmother. But he also appeared to have aged almost overnight, as if preparing for the seriousness of what lies ahead. My God, he seems to be thinking, that's going to be me in a decade or so.

The face that drove 15 year-old girls wild.

Has anyone considered that both Charles and William might be a little ticked off that they were born to do the heavy-lifting, leaving their younger brothers to do as they pleased? Once Diana gave birth to two sons, Andrew could rest easily, knowing that it would take an extraordinary act of bad luck to inherit the job that would spoil all his fun. A clueless chap, Andrew likely believes he's actually helped the family come a long way, seeing that his uncle swung with Hitler while his bestie was named Epstein.

I'm no royalist, but I have a soft spot for the new King. He's always been in a no-win situation, having been forced into a loveless marriage, had to wait three-quarters of a century to inherit his new job, and dislikes modern architecture. He seems fully aware, too, of having an impossible act to follow. But instead of running that through his head all night long, he'll ask the first person on the next handshake line, Well then, how are you doing? 

Maybe someone should ask him the same thing sometime. They might be shocked by the answer.

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