About The Greener Grass: The Crown (Moondust)
Post 707:
I think I’ve mentioned my general dislike for the idea of nobility. Perhaps that’s the only thing I can say I have in common with the Founding Fathers. Despite this entrenched aversion to monarchy in general and specifically, I think The Crown on Netflix is a piece of authentically good work, top to bottom.
Whatever one might say about the series, it is unique in the fact that each episode is its own story. Unlike a lot of shows, each installment is a self-contained narrative. To be more explicit, one can watch any offering and enjoy, having seen none of the former or latter.
The current season’s seventh episode is one the best things I’ve seen in some time. It centers around Queen Elizabeth’s husband as he experiences the triumphant moon landing. Although he’s a man of incalculable position and wealth, he’s at a loss. It’s a singular perspective, and quite instructive. Though ensconced in position and notoriety, this vaunted man feels absolutely put in the shade by the achievements of the astronauts that first touched down on the moon.
He’s also going through a spiritual crisis. Lack of faith or meaning, call it what you will. If you haven’t felt it, you will. One of those inevitable slivers of thought that any honest soul will have to admit to having.
The episode offers so much. Getting older. Envying the achievement of others. War with oneself. The fact that it comes from someone so worldly blessed might actually make it more poignant.
I like that he’s humbled. I also like that when he meets these men of such renown, it’s a total disappointment. They’re simply young guys that did their jobs, somewhat deaf to the more philosophical sentiments he wishes to impart to them.
This is classic grass is greener. If you’ve dreamed at all, you’ve dreamed of being like someone. Someone built greater in your mind, a person or people that have gone farther and reached higher than yourself. It’s perfectly natural, but ultimately unfulfilling. The Queen’s hubby is just like the rest of us, full of regret and wondering if he made all the right decisions.
The answer, for him and everyone else: Nope. You didn’t. And neither did anyone else. Nobody else has or will. The fact that he’s underwhelmed upon meeting with the astronauts displays a human truth we often forget. There’s so much to admire in other people, but that doesn’t make them wholly admirable. We, all of us, have deficiencies and strengths, and somewhere in running through the game of comparing and contrasting, we should attempt to know we’re all trying, winning, and coming up short. Just like everyone else.
Be encouraged. Take heart. Cheers and see you after.
