An Education

The U.K.’s election season started in earnest today. In a series of calculated moves, Gordon Brown met with his cabinet before heading to Buckingham Palace to ask the Queen to dissolve Parliament so that elections could be called. She said yes.

Coming from a very American idea of democracy and government, the politics here – and the ceremony, the decorum and the sometimes lack thereof – at times baffle me almost as much as the accents. (Today I found myself yet again sitting next to some girls on the tube who I at first thought were from some foreign country, speaking a language I couldn’t decipher. Only to find that when I listened for a few minutes, they were – in fact – speaking English.)

It is a strange time to be an American in the U.K. Or maybe it’s just a strange time to be in the U.K.

The media are calling it the most interesting election since 1997, when Tony Blair and the Labour Party swept to power with a promise to modernize the country – ending years of Tory dominance.

Strangely enough, this weekend I was a bit immersed in that exact moment. I finally watched The Queen. (Late, as usual, to the party.) And it was an education.

I can’t say I understand this place much more than I did. Or that I will fully grasp the politics of this election. Then again, I don’t think I really comprehend the politics of my own country much either.

But I find that history is always important in understanding countries and people. We each have our own background – small or maybe large moments that add up to a certain point of view, a certain way of interacting with others. That add up to who we are. And it is important to try to see, at least for a moment, from the other point of view.

I wish that were easier to practice than to preach. It is, in fact, one of the harder things we can attempt. But it is also one of the things that would make this world a more compassionate place.