The Writer’s Section was torn this morning at their customary coffee places under bright Virginia Piedmont skies. There was coverage from Shanghai about the Cooperation Organization meeting. Apparently the conferees declared the order in global finances that has existed since World War Two is finished. Something new is emerging, sponsored by nations representing half the world’s population. There was some vague reference to the currency currently regarded as the global standard, with a similar shrouded reference to the nation currently printing it.

The SCO meeting has been planned for a while, and events elsewhere have influenced the topics under discussion. The trouble in Ukraine is one of them, of course, and with Russia a participant in the meeting it made things a bit awkward for the Chinese, since part of the problem is exacerbated by their “Belt and Road” global trade initiative. It will take a while to work this out, since NATO and the US are piling weapons into a war in progress.

The unscheduled events in the United Kingdom naturally have diverted attention from events in Shanghai. They were unscheduled, of course, and reactive to the passing of the only Queen most of us will ever know. Absent some disaster of unimaginable consequence, that is certainly true for all those around the Fire Ring. So despite the ambitions in Shanghai, we will limit this afternoon’s discussions to the events of the last 70 years, and the burial of a figure the like of which will remain a singular feature in the world we shared. She was calm in the face of adversity and dignified in the transition of a great Empire to another footnote of history.

She will be the only Queen we will know, with any luck, and we salute both her passing and the time we shared in this world. As the hearse that bears her corpse arrives at Windsor, now, in this moment, we can say it for a last time: “God save the Queen.”

And we will get used to the other version as required.

Copyright 2022 Vic Socotra
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