The Saddest of Fairy Tales:
Diana, Princess of the World
By: Charles Petersen
Diana was a princess of the highest honor and even though the royal family may be able to take away a title, they can never take away the true honor that was deserved by an individual of her stature. Diana was loved by the world for most everything she did even though some people might say that she acted without consulting officials. All that really means is that she was speaking from her heart and telling what was true, not what had gone through the political mixer to come out as a bunch of mumbo jumbo. Diana also had a good sense of style and a wonderful physique that some might say is a historical first for the royal family.
Princess Diana defined regal in a new way in that she was very royal, yet she also seemed approachable to the commoner. She accomplished this by going to the sick and the poor, the disadvantaged and the maimed. She stood up for issues that were morally right and, since she was constantly in the spotlight, she brought attention to subjects that had been on the sidelines for so long. In some ways Diana's meeting with Mother Theresa this last year in New York was rather ironic in that they both devoted most of their adult lives to charity. However the two had come out of the most different of backgrounds and had taken their approach to charity in such different ways, one being incredibly humble and the other incredibly regal (one was wearing a one dollar outfit, the others probably cost somewhere in the thousands.) With Diana's death she probably left a legacy that, just like J.F.K, probably would never have occurred if she had died of old age. Still the legacy she does leave will probably be remembered for quite some time. Her most important legacy is her children, I'll bet that she hopes Charles and the rest of the Winsors will continue in the way that she was raising them. One day I hope if my children ever ask me where I was when I heard that Princess Di died, I can remember.
All of this adds up to the reasons for Princess Diana being loved by the public in general. She redefined what it means to be royal and helped everything that she saw as morally just. She would cut through everything that stood in her way to the basic human instinct of right and wrong. If there was one person that I can say the world genuinely loved, it would be Princess Di.
Charles Petersen
9/8/97
A-1