Of Weathermen and Queen Elizabeth II

By Bobby Neal Winters

I liked going to Safeway when I was a little boy because they had automatic doors. They were like magic. They open even though you don’t touch them.  I still think they were pretty cool.

Once I had just stepped through those magical doors and looked up to see the weatherman from KTEN-TV (channel 10 in Ada, Oklahoma) right there in front of me.  Had it been Jesus Christ himself, the shock could not have been greater.

Looking back, I consider myself lucky that I didn’t wet my pants.  As it was, I just ran off crying at the top of my lungs. There wasn’t a puddle for anyone to mop up, but just a story my big brother could hold over my head for YEARS.

Now things are different. Until he moved, I walked past the house of the KOAM morning weather guy every day. When he was out in his front yard we would pass and repass. If he was on his phone, he’d nod his head and wave. Occasionally, I would thank him for the good weather we’d been having. 

So I now, as a grownup man, know that these folks we see on TV every day are just people, just human beings, like us.  No, not like us, they are us.

But there is something there, some special quality that the folks that “everyone knows” have. This is a place where I am running out of words. I am pretty sure someone knows them and that I will be told them--perhaps even nicely.  I want to say they have a power, but that’s not precise enough.  Would one use either the word charisma or charism here?

I’ve run out of words, so as I am a teacher, let’s do some examples.

As I write this, Queen Elizabeth II has just passed away at the age of 96.  She arose to her position not out of merit, but out of birth because that’s the way such things are done. That position gave her this quality I am talking about. Just because she was who she was being in her presence would have a certain effect on you depending who you are.

I wouldn’t run crying from her presence now like I did for the KTEN weatherman. I would stand there like a grown up and wet my pants.  Of this, I have no doubt.  There would be a custodian there with a mop as the EMTs rolled my unconscious body off to the ER.

Others would be affected differently I’m sure.

While I said that Queen Elizabeth didn’t rise to her position because of merit, she did fill that position as well as any could in this modern day.  Others will speak of different things, but I most respected her quiet, but unapologetic, Christian faith. She expressed this faith not as a theologian nor a preacher, but as a simple professing member of the faith.  This is something of a trick when you are the titular head of the Church of England.

Pastors have this quality to a lesser degree within the scope of their churches.  Bosses at work have this quality. Politicians have it, God help us.

A word from them one way or the other can affect the way we feel.  Recognition from them can make our spirits soar; retribution from them can crush us.

People who go to church will skip church on days when the pastor is on vacation--even if they don’t like the pastor.  People who are often absent from Rotary will show up when a politician is there--even if they don’t like the politician.

Not everyone who has this (quality/power/charism) acquits themselves well.  The Kardasians who are famous for being famous use it as a cash cow.  There are people who would swoon in their presence.  They are like insects which the wind has lofted to a great height. Everyone can see them and there is money to be made as long as people keep looking.

Queen Elizabeth was wise in the sense that she allowed tradition to protect her.  She guarded her gift so that it could be a boon to her people. When she bestowed an honor upon someone, it meant something to the person who received it.  It lifted them up.  It buoyed their spirit.  

Those who share this quality would do well to follow her example.

Those who know sociology or psychology will understand this all better than I do.  I am just a child, a child walking through magic doors looking in wonder upon it all.

You weathermen out there, you with all your power and charism.  Be careful. And when you send a child screaming from your presence, be kind.

Bobby Winters, a native of Harden City, Oklahoma, blogs at redneckmath.blogspot.com and okieinexile.blogspot.com. He invites you to “like'' the National Association of Lawn Mowers on Facebook. Search for him by name on YouTube. )