I think that in her death Diana gave others the gift of being an inspiration. Just like in case of JFK and RFK, during their lives their deeds left an undeniable mark, but after their deaths the loss has become much more vivid, especially if you keep the "Terror of History" concept in mind.
Diana wasn't a saint, but she and her actions projected kindness and other qualities that stood in direct contrast to the "drooling and scheming beast of "real life"". For those who desperately needed a sign, she was like an answer that there was a possibility for something different, something kinder and gentler. Something hopeful.
Not long ago I posted on FB several of her quotes that made an impact on me. Here they are again.
Mircea Eliade said:When man contemplates history, AS IT IS, he is forced to realize that he is in the iron grip of an existence that seems to have no real care or concern for his pain and suffering. Over and over again, the same sufferings fall upon mankind multiplied millions upon millions of times over millennia. The totality of human suffering is a dreadful thing. I could write until the end of the world using oceans of ink and forests of paper, and never fully convey this terrible condition in which mankind finds his existence.
The beast of arbitrary calamity has always been with us. For as long as human hearts have pumped hot blood through their too-fragile bodies and glowed with the inexpressible sweetness of life and yearning for all that is good and right and loving, the sneering, stalking, drooling and scheming beast of "real life" has licked its lips in anticipation of its next feast of terror and suffering. Since the beginning of time, this mystery of the estate of man, this Curse of Cain has existed. And, since the Ancient of Days, the cry has been: "My punishment is greater than I can bear!"
Diana wasn't a saint, but she and her actions projected kindness and other qualities that stood in direct contrast to the "drooling and scheming beast of "real life"". For those who desperately needed a sign, she was like an answer that there was a possibility for something different, something kinder and gentler. Something hopeful.
Not long ago I posted on FB several of her quotes that made an impact on me. Here they are again.
1. There are two basic agents when defining us as human beings - one, a sharpness of mind. Two is kindness of the heart - hearing and sharing the grief of others.
(Receiving Humanitarian of the Tear Award, 1995)
2. I pay great attention to people and I always remember them. Every visit, every meeting is special. Nothing brings me more happiness than trying to help the most vulnerable people in society. It is a goal and essential part of my life, a kind of destiny. Whoever is in distress can call on me. I will come running, wherever they are.
(Last interview given in June 1997 to Le Monde and published by the Paris-based paper a few days before she died there)
3. I feel close to people whoever they might be. We are all the same to begin with, on the same wavelength. That is why I disturb certain people.
Because I am closer to people down there than to people higher up they won't forgive me for that. Because I really have close relations with the most humble people.
(Interview with Le Monde, published shortly before she died)
4. I want the boys to experience what most people already know - that they are growing up in a multi¬racial society in which not everyone is rich, has four holidays a year, speaks standard English and has a Range Rover.
(Diana's hopes for her sons, expressed to friends, 1994)
5. It's prayer, Tony, prayer. It is most important.
(Private words to the Revd Tony Lloyd, Executive Director of the Leprosy Mission, who had commented, "I don't know how you stay sane." 1993)
6. Touch my face. I don't mind at all.
(To a blind man, aged twenty-two. He had asked if he could touch her to find out if she was as beautiful as people said. Diana knelt in front of him and placed his hand on her face, in 1995. Blind people often sensed Diana's magnetic personality, although deprived of her beauty and glamour which entranced so many sighted people)
7. I hope you will always be able to let others share in your own strength.
(From a letter to a cerebral palsy victim, a woman of twenty-seven who had met Diana through the Chicken Shed, a theatre company which welcomes young people of all abilities. Diana also wrote a foreword to her book, Paula's Story, 1993)
8. I was enormously impressed by the genuineness of your approach to the survivors and their families to sustain their morale and to help them maintain their self-esteem. Their tragic stories are a desperately sad reflection of man's inhumanity to man. The victims I have met and their senselessly inflicted injuries have stiffened my resolve to ensure that their needs for care and support are not overlooked in the search for an agreement to outlaw landmines.
(Part of one of Diana's last letters, written 12 August 1997, to Jerry White, co-founder of the Landmines Survivors Network)
9. Life is mostly froth and bubble
Two things stand like stone
Kindness in another's trouble
Courage in your own.
(Words of the Australian poet, Adam Lindsay Gordon, quoted by Diana at a fund-raising dinner at the National Museum Building, Washington, in 1996. The lines could almost be her epitaph)