Some Britons may have come to regret their queen-bashing, flower-tossing, and mile-long queues to sign her "Book of Remembrance," but for many, Peter Singer points out in a recent column, Diana has become something akin to a saint.
"Some had a 'Diana room' in their homes, filled with memorabilia of the princess," he writes of Diana fans he encountered at the opening of the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain in London in 2004. "Their lives, it seemed, now revolved around a woman who had been dead for seven years." From the near mythic rumors about the circumstances of her death to sculptures portraying her as the Virgin Mary, Diana worship, says Singer, a professor of bioethics at Princeton University, "as absurd as any cult."
Absurd, maybe, but the canonization of Diana goes on.
In an article in Britain's Daily Telegraph headlined "Diana's presence felt from beyond the grave," Jan Moir remembers "the pilgrims who lit candles and brought flowers, who prayed and cried endlessly. They reminded me of a trip to Umbria, where thousands of women travel every week to pay homage at the shrine of St Rita of Cascia, the patron saint of impossible causes and damaged wives."
Time magazine contrasts her to other immortal icons, like Elvis and Marilyn Monroe, by saying, "People knew her as a royal, a mother, a humanitarian and--many thought--a saint." A website, obviously of recent vintage, just gets it over with: saintdiana.com.
Those who reject the idea of Saint Diana seem to hold her in higher esteem than those who lean hard on the metaphor. Singer points out that Diana did a lot of good while alive by attracting attention to causes like AIDS and the removal of landmines left behind by war. But another Time writer this week ungenerously claims that, in view of her adulterous affairs and her inevitable descent into age and Botox, "her death was a fateful gift: providing her with the halo of martyrdom." If that's what sainthood gets you these days, I'd rather be remembered as a sinner.
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I believe Diana was a very caring, simple and intuitive person. She was able to see what kind cold-hearted people she had to share her live with. She was no saint but she tried her best to find meaning to her life. Her two children were part of that. She did nothing wrong in loving a man. It doesn't matter that she wasn't married. What is more important, to be married and miserable or to be unmarried and happy; as long as you don't hurt anybody in the process it's ok. I was happy when I found out she was in love. After all she went through with her husband, she deserved someone better for her. Charles might be a prince but he has no class.
Love and peace
I always look up at Princess Diana no matter what she had been through. MABUHAY!!!
There is no more respect with the deceased. The big show goes on, with the infamous display of the portraits in the basement of the big store H', property of the old respected (?)businessman. The publicity is to be paid, at least to the charity, and he is laughing all the way to the bank, after the daily takings.
It was enough to take adavantage of his son's death, but to add other people is simply rotten. Please Lord forgive those!
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Many who write should be careful about criticism. Was she perfect? I say not, but are you? When the day comes and you have sacrifice for people that don't know you, but you genuinely care about what happens to them, then be my guest and critique on. When you sacrifice to protect your children at all cost, and that means making sure that you can smile and be mentally healthy despite being judged by the world contantly, then be my guest and critique on. I say that sainthood may not be the title for her, but considering what she was up against. She got out of the mud, grabbed herself by the bootstraps, and forged ahead while poeple continued to attempt to knock her down, each and every day. That's not your everyday, run of the mill person.
Pace
I admired her, and felt sorry for the way her family, friends and the
wimp she married, treated her. Charlie was a real louse. And with all
the international "powers" hounding her every movement, she didn't have
a chance to evade the "accident." Whereas I didn't like her many
affairs after her divorce, still I can picture some of the betrayal and pain she'd experienced, that made her crave love. I suggest
your reading a book entitled "The Murder of Princess Diana" by Noel
Botham. Fascinating reading. And I pity her being buried on that
island, in isolation, almost unwanted. Sorry tale re such a beautiful and fascinating soul; may she have the happiness now, that she didn't
have when she lived with us.
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