Ceremony

This is the kind of thing the natives may take for granted but as an expat I love about the UK: they do ceremony right. I've turned into a closet monarchist and I do find something worthwhile in the old traditions, rituals, and pomp. Americans are often at a loss when a ceremony or ritual is called for. In the aftermath of the sep-11, congress singing "God Bless America" on the steps seemed bizarre and feeble. Across the pond, the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace was altered, once, with the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner. It was dignified, poignant, deeply grounded in historical context... I found it indescribably moving.

A few days ago I enjoyed a much more mundane but personally relevant ceremony, the Lord Mayor of London's prize giving ceremony for the City of London School for Boys, presided over by The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London himself. There were sherriffs and aldermen and cloaks and capes and staffs and a couple guys with swords and some big freakin' medallions and music and processionals and this is like nothing a midwesterner would ever see growing up. The esteemed participants had that perfect balance you find in here: it was a ritual to be approached in good humor without being camp, taken seriously -- enough-- to give it meaning without being overly pompous or ludicrous. It was really well done.

The other astonishing thing? The ceremony included a speech by one of the students, praising an early benefactor of the school. I was astonished enough to find that such a speech has been given every year for more than 150 years, but even more delighted to find the benefactor -- John Carpenter -- who has been yearly praised since Victoria was a young queen died 567 years ago! Yes, a guy who died in 1442 that most people never heard of has been annually praised by a teenager in front of the Lord Mayor of London for generations now. How cool is that?