! T H E R E M E M B R A N C E R S

and it’s difficult to say exactly what they do, or how useful that task really is for like the ideal rulers of ancient China, the better they do their job, the less we notice that you could say, they are remembrancers: they hold memories for millions of people: they remember people, good people, poor people, and honour them as we should wish to honour them; they remember heroes and the dead; they remember history; and how things used to be done, when they were done well; it is their duty, over a whole lifetime, to remember what is so deep in all our hearts that we have forgotten that we know it; that we could hardly express it; yet, as those stories of every nation tell, as King Arthur is said to arise from the sleeping soul in times of need – this is what they remember for us; they remember what it means to be a nation when others have forgotten but as they have no executive power they can only advise and consent when asked they draw to themselves, good and wise people who help them to remember to remember for the rest of us and such is the mystery of what they really do that we laugh about their private lives over our morning newspapers while they set out for another day full of official engagements of being seen to remember something and we remember having seen them and how we waved our flags and gave them flowers but may or may not sense what they remember for us and as they move around, in and out of cars and sometimes planes each day receiving flowers from children awed by the moment, shaking hands, receiving in a few seconds our clumsy response, respect; admiration; recognition for duty done; even, love; they must remember all that is unspoken, unformulated, in those clumsy moments of the heart and soul and that great mind which makes of human beings families, tribes, nations, humanity in those we walk with, through our life for memory is not visible and what they hold for us, we seldom think about and we shall never know how much we owe to them unless they were no longer here for us they are sometimes called to be called kings and queens and some are great, born great, achieving greatness, or greatness thrust upon them in the holy oil with which status is anointed; but our gratitude is seldom shown until their jubilee, or in time of war or at their funeral when we, wearing black, may celebrate their life, their light, the remembrancers