Juliana, Queen of The Netherlands

This post is dedicated to Iris and those who are Iris-like.

Her Majesty Queen Juliana gave this address at 1:00 p.m. on December 25, 1976 and from that address, the following words have stayed with me:

THE LIGHT shines in darkness. That is what you can really call it, darkness. And in that darkness many of us are having difficulties with -- light: we are too gloomy and too troubled to see it or to search for light-points.

...Everywhere we see lasting discord, even wars, little reconciliation, little progress, and too much failure; and in it all there is a frightening lack of respect for the life and well-being of each other, and for all life on earch -- in dozens of different forms -- and this is alarming.

But such is not surprising in a world inhabited by four billion egoists. Just think of it: four billion people, all inclined to think of themselves as the center of the world. Selfishness is, in the end, self-destructive; this really is obvious. But all four billion of us do have a splendid opportunity to exchange that selfishness for a realizaation that others are more important than we ourselves...

...We would not suffer so much from all that is dark and without hope of improvement, were we not meant to be what is sometimes called "children of light."