Having watched a few more episodes of Downton Abbey I noticed something. Robert Grantham's dog Isis lopes along behind him without a leash. Being with his favorite person is enough of a reason to lumber upright, or lay down, hustle or slack.
The Englishmen who live there, however, seem to be yanked around by invisible tethers. Public opinion holds enormous sway. Threats regarding their reputation cause servants to hide secrets, lie, and scurry out of the limelight.
The family upstairs is just as prone to making decisions based on escaping scandal in the papers. It looks exhausting. For a society who are swimming in privilege, they seem determined to tether the ropes around their own necks and toss the reins to anyone within reach.
On occasion someone breaks free, and speaks their mind, or moves away for actual reasons. The resistance is fierce, however, and it leaves me wondering what the Granthams would profess if the air felt safe.
There is, of course, a place for keeping silent. One husband told me that the key to marital harmony was a deeply grooved tongue.
All of us make choices around our actions. Our private guideposts can be pounded in by all manner of fists.
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you. If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too.
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting. Or being lied about not deal in lies. Or being hated, not give way to hating. And yet don't look too good nor talk too wise.....portion of If by Rudyard Kipling
I aspire to the time when I follow God not from coercion, but from loyalty.
Love,
Lori
