What do you feel when a rock of ages tumbles into the the sea when something you relied on sat upon, learned from and leaned on for good counsel that you needed to be reassured and feel secured and rooted in your trials, to be there regardless, even if you were somewhere else entirely ... or not a rock that’s been there for always this life just entered the realms of leavened legend and lore knocking at the gates of Neverland. What can you say when someone asks you “how do you feel?” about such a controversial, yet conversational challenging, yet charming pragmatic, yet princely daring and duke-it-out yet dutiful and dashing outspoken, yet outgoing much loved, yet likeable rogue. Why didn’t you expect it? Why did it suddenly become the least wanted wish after all this time, taken for granted, yet forgotten in the background, yet difficult to ignore. What else would we impossibly say ... or want? What do you do when time freezes into glacial slo-mo a clip from an epic film a moment when child-like uncomprehending self-preserving denial an innocent hope of one more time, again please, please, please let’s go to sea once more reflect, respect, deflect the imperative to understand the inevitable change What did we learn in the aftermath, if you spent an incalculable time, not wasted in the shadows, but replete with so much energy, so much given simply feted pre-modern man as modern as tomorrow as modest as any soul, with a zest for knowledge, that when least expected, rocked the best brains, with a power to convene the greatest minds of Gods and Engineers, who would change the World, where it mattered not who you are, as much as what truly interests and moves you to take what privilege you have and use it to serve, continually to learn so much, care so much about advancing the causes conserving of species of ... even one less seemingly insignificant precious life on Earth.
Written in the immediate aftermath of the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, Consort of Queen Elizabeth II.
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