MountainMornings

Admit it. We were all glued to the TV last night listening to the Oprah interview, in a way the streaming generation could never understand. Like watching Murphy Brown and immediately calling your BFF to discuss. Only now, all we have is Twitter, and to be honest, I was so mesmerized by the Duchess of Sussex interview, I totally forgot to Tweet-along!

Feeling trapped, in a relationship or a toxic system, will never bode well. Prince Harry the Redhead gave us a lens into royal life. His family is afraid of the British tabloids, but seems to think they are a necessary evil. I couldn’t help but notice his pain, the trauma of losing his Mother Diana at the age of 12 was his “history repeating itself” reference.

“I really regret not ever talking about it,” Prince Harry said at an event for a mental health charity in 2016. “For the first 28 years of my life, I never talked about it. It is okay to suffer, but as long as you talk about it. It is not a weakness. Weakness is having a problem, and not recognizing it, and not solving that problem.” Harry has since become an advocate for mental health awareness.

https://www.oprahmag.com/entertainment/tv-movies/a29874597/princess-diana-death/

You could imagine Meghan and Harry being hunted by the press, and their subtle, racist barbs. Added onto that, the not-so-subtle conversation Harry had with a family member about the skin tone of the first mixed race royal baby. I prefer to think it was his Father, Prince Charles, who opined about his future grandchild’s color. The man who stopped taking his calls. The guy who cheated on Harry’s mum all along, makes me wonder if he was spearheading the process of no title and no security for baby Archie? Not that I’m holding a grudge or anything.

Being an American, Meghan spoke up. She knew she needed help, she explained she was suicidal. Like a brunette Rapunzel, she let her hair down and even went to “The Firm” for help. Once Meghan and Harry realized that help wasn’t forthcoming, they rescued each other. Like a modern day fairy tale, Meghan took matters into her own hands and they escaped the confines of the palace. She told Oprah they would be welcoming Archie’s little sister this summer. The best gender-reveal party ever!

Bob reminded me that Diana was just a kid when she married her prince, that Meghan had been 36 when she walked down the aisle, a few years older than Harry. Worldly and smart, she was an independent, woman with her own identity, her own residuals from “Suits.”

Today is International Women’s Day. So I’d like to close with Serena Williams’ tweet last night, because I couldn’t say it better:

“I know firsthand the sexism and racism institutions and the media use to vilify women and people of color to minimize us,” the tennis icon wrote. “We must recognize our obligation to decry malicious, unfounded gossip and tabloid journalism. The mental health consequences of systemic oppression and victimization are devastating, isolating and all too often lethal.”

Nobody puts Meghan in the corner. Here’s a little women’s history VP lesson from America: until the orange circle, Kamala, Serena and Meghan would still have been slaves. Until the pink, they would have no vote. Until blue their schools would have been segregated…