There are times when
someone’s influence and contributions are less in how they lived their life and
more in what that life revealed about ourselves. Was Diana
Spencer Mountbatten-Windsor’s life, in Shakespeare’s princely words, about “cracking
open a noble heart”—and with her death, our own?
Diana—charismatic, photogenic and clever—came onto
the scene in the explosion of celebrity-focused mainstream media (celebrity
gossip was not just for the tabloids anymore) and began breaking rules
immediately. Perhaps it was her easy beauty and princess glow that first drew
us in, yet there was something deeper, even mythological, that had us linger.
Following this thread, I was reminded of an On Being radio interview with author,
pastor and biblical interpreter Eugene Peterson. He considered it important to
know that the old prophets of the Bible were poets, so you would read scripture
with your imagination, listening in the storytelling rhythm of how they
communicated in their day, and in turn, learning the nature and meaning of
metaphor. In other words, so you wouldn’t “try to literalize everything.” The
beloved teacher considered the metaphor “a remarkable kind of formation because
it both means what it says and what it doesn’t say. Those two things come
together, and it creates an imagination which is active. You’re not trying to
figure things out; you’re trying to enter into what’s there.”
[Excerpt from the Introduction, "Diana As Messenger," of my book-in-progress, tentatively titled, A Memory of Beauty: The Spiritual Mission of a Princess...more excerpts to come.]
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