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D. A. Houdek |
Deb Houdek Rule |
Web designer - Science Fiction author - Civil War historian - Genealogy researcherWelcome to my personal website! |
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On the deaths of Princess Diana and Mother Teresa…
by D. A. Houdek
I wrote this on the Heinlein Forum bb shortly after their deaths.
Two more different women there may never be, half a world apart from each other in every literal and figurative sense. Yet, what a curious kinship brings them together in death with their sameness standing out more vividly than their difference.
One was wealthy beyond comprehension; the other poor in an equally unimaginable way. In the ultimate summation, though, their personal legacies of the kind of women they were, and how they chose to live their lives, are greater than any material possessions they could have had.One stood tall, elegant and beautiful; the other tiny, hunched and shriveled. Yet radiant beauty shone as clearly in the aged, wrinkled face as from the young, smooth one.
While Diana seemed constantly at battle within and without, always seeking, never at peace, Mother Teresa appeared calmly and steadfastly in control, with her faith in God giving her a powerful inner peace. Both shared a quality that might be called “grace”. Neither condescended to, nor judged, those whom they helped.
Both women lived with a constant relationship with the media. For Mother Teresa it was a means to an end; a means to send out her message. Still, had her message never been known by any but those within a few blocks of her in Calcutta the value of her work would not have been diminished. Criticism did not bother her. Praise did not affect her. Diana struggled with both. The media made Diana what she was, and became the focal point of her good works. Her presence drew the cameras and attention to the causes she chose to help; that attention being the coin those causes really wanted from her. For some she touched it was her title and position that made her comfort special to them, making them feel important by her granting them a measure of her own importance. For others—dying children who'd never seen a tabloid, never heard of the Princess of Wales—her touch and compassion were the same as Mother Teresa's own, and that, too, can not be diminished.
I had hoped that in the overwhelming spectacle of Diana's death and funeral that Mother Teresa's death would pass almost unseen, and hoped that her sisters would be able to bury her quietly, without notice. That's not to be. While Diana was never to be granted anonyminity in either life or death—and may not have wanted it—for Mother Teresa to disappear quietly leaving nothing behind of herself but her good works would have been the finest tribute possible.
Diana could have lived a sumptuous jet-set life and still have been considered a decent person yet she chose—chose—, once the duties that came with her title and marriage were behind her, to still seek out horrible places and wretched people who could gain from her giving. Like her, Mother Teresa chose her life; chose a life of giving beyond even that of most who share her religious vows. Diana gave some of herself while Mother Teresa gave her all, yet both did give and no one made them.
In the final summation, both did more than what was required of them, gave more than they would have needed to give, and lived a little bit better than they would have had to live.
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