Of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots; Spring; and Bad Report Cards

[mallorys_camera]

Reading Margaret George’s fat tomb, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland and the Isles. My God, what a life that woman led – Chenonceau, the French court, Darnley, Bothwell.

But of course the fun part was all over by the time she was 25. Most of Mary’s life was spent growing old and unhealthy under house arrest, hapless figurehead to the political discontent of the moment, whatever it was.

There was an epiphanal moment right after she was executed:

Then, her dress of lawn falling from off her head, it appeared as grey as one of threescore and ten years old, polled very short, her face in a moment being so much altered from the form she had when she was alive, as few could remember her by her dead face. Her lips stirred up and down a quarter of an hour after her head was cut off. (From the eyewitness account by Robert Wynkfielde.)

Kind of like Dorian Grey – at death, the witchery reverts and she is an enchanted princess no longer, just another old woman.

I keep mulling on that one. All our cultural training is on how to be young; nothing ever educates us how to be middle-aged. I suppose religion used to. That’s what the culture lost when it lost religion, I guess, training on how to carry yourself through life’s various postscripts.

###

Spring here now in full force. Crocuses on their way out, daffodils on their way in. In the evenings I take Milo for long walks along Fall Creek where a thousand frogs sing. We watch the birds – I try to see them as miniature dinosaurs. Milo doesn’t like the creek as much as he used to like the beach. He prances still but not nearly as much. Or maybe he too is growing old…

###

RTT got his report card. A disaster. He’s flunking geometry – no surprises there, he never studies. Cs and Bs in everything else. But the anecdotal parts of the 22-page pdf – this is New Roots, after all – were rife with comments like, “He’s obviously bright but completely unmotivated,” and “He’s used to falling between the cracks. But he can’t do that here” (although obviously he can – and has.)
I looked him sitting besides me in the doctor’s office yesterday – this weedy, spotty kid who really doesn’t even know how to shave himself properly. All that fierce determination to have his own way, to make his own decisions. It’s not self-reliance. He can barely make himself a grilled cheese sandwich (I have tried to teach him. Many, many times.)

I’ve been a bad mother, I guess.

Big blowout fight last night naturally.

Comments

[slfisher.livejournal.com]

I liked Mary, Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser.

(p.s., it's tome, not tomb, unless you were making a pun.)

sorry about your son. wish I had something useful to offer.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

I appreciate the editorial part of you, Sharon. :-) Tomb was actually the hastily scribbled typo.

[nokomisjeff.livejournal.com]

He'll probably be a billionaire someday:)

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Let's hope so. :-) How are you?

[nokomisjeff.livejournal.com]

I'm surfing, hanging with John, and thinking about a very pretty new lady who's taking a holiday in Italy and I won;t see her until next week. Other than that, I keep plodding along.

Jeff

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

My cousin is going through something similar with her equally brilliant 15-year-old son...except he failed all but one or two classes. I feel for both of you.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

These teenage boys with attitude give their mothers gray hairs, I'll tell you. :-)